South Dakota ties all time state record high?

[Jim Cantore]

I heard on the weather channel, I forget the town but I heard that there was an unofficial report that it hit 120 degrees, hope it was a dry heat .

Is there any truth to it?

[tropicana]

RECORD EVENT REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE RAPID CITY SD
500 PM MDT SAT JUL 15 2006

...POSSIBLE ALL TIME RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE TIED FOR THE STATE OF
SOUTH DAKOTA...

A HIGH TEMPERATURE OF 120 DEGREES WAS RECORDED AT A NATIONAL WEATHER
SERVICE COOPERATIVE WEATHER SITE THIS AFTERNOON...LOCATED 8 MILES
WEST-NORTHWEST OF USTA. IF THIS TEMPERATURE IS OFFICIALLY
VERIFIED...IT WILL TIE THE ALL TIME RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE FOR THE
STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA. ON JULY 5 1936...GANN VALLEY SET THE RECORD
OF 120 DEGREES.

[TexasStooge]

[Jim Cantore]

As I said, I hope for their sake it was a dry heat

[Aslkahuna]

What difference does it make if it's bone dry or sopping wet heat? A temperature of 120F is deadly in either circumstance.

Steve

[Jim Cantore]

Humidity would determine if it feels like 120 or 140, if it's 120 and the dewpoint is 70, thats suicide to spend a length of time outside.

In places like death valley, although it's 125 degrees, the extremely low humidity causes it to actually feel a few degrees cooler, does it help much? no but still it's better then feeling like 140.

[Aslkahuna]

Actually, the desert humidity is not always that low, for example at 1 AM tonight Palm Springs is 98/66 with a HI of 101. A 66F dewpoint is NOT dry heat. There's this misconception both about what happens in the desert humidity wise (or more properly dewpoint wise since RH is a very poor indicator) and also the deadliness of the desert heat dry or not. Dry heat kills by dehydrating your body (and very quickly too) and if one is not careful or too believing of the TWC BS that dry heat isn't as bad one can get in serious difficulty in as little as a half hour when those temperatures go over 115F. Aside form the hundreds of illegals who die crossing the desert and the thousands who are rescued in bad shape, we also lose a lot of people who should know better to desert heat. At 120F, it doesn't matter if it feels like 118 or 140 when the wind blows it's going to feel like a blast furnace and when it's that hot there's going to be a wind blowing. I've been in temperatures up to 120F and dewpoints over 80 and spent 9 years in the Tropics so I've experienced a lot of heat but the worst ever occurrence was once in CA during a Santa Ana that brought temperatures of 107 to the BEACHES in San Diego with 60 mph wind gusts and bone dry humidity-it was totally impossible to cool down with those hot blasts and we drank gallons of water.

Steve

[wxmann_91]

...but the worst ever occurrence was once in CA during a Santa Ana that brought temperatures of 107 to the BEACHES in San Diego with 60 mph wind gusts and bone dry humidity-it was totally impossible to cool down with those hot blasts and we drank gallons of water.

Steve

Holy Cow!! Must've been before I moved there, but I couldn't stand that heat.

[Jim Cantore]

a Santa Ana that brought temperatures of 107 to the BEACHES in San Diego with 60 mph wind gusts and bone dry humidity-it was totally impossible to cool down with those hot blasts and we drank gallons of water.

That must of been an ugly day

[Matt-hurricanewatcher]

Wow global warming is out of control. In this is coming my way this weekend.

[Aslkahuna]

Query: we are seeing patterns and temperatures that also occurred back in the mid 1930's, just how does this relate to Global Warming?

Steve

[Matt-hurricanewatcher]

More intense heat waves...

[bob rulz]

but the worst ever occurrence was once in CA during a Santa Ana that brought temperatures of 107 to the BEACHES in San Diego with 60 mph wind gusts and bone dry humidity-it was totally impossible to cool down with those hot blasts and we drank gallons of water.

Why did anybody even want to be on the beaches that day? Sounds like a living hell.

[Aslkahuna]

That was the point I was tryin to make, the current heatwave is on par with one that occurred in 1936 (at least in SD, I'm not sure if Iowa has seen all of their daily highs for a single date average out to 108.7F for the entire state so far this year). Furthermore, in 1936 the area was in a Drought just like now. In fact, in overall intensity and extent, the 1930's Drought still exceeds the current one except locally in places and ranks among the top of the recurrent 20 year droughts in the Plains and West.
I'm a believer in the old adage among Geophysicists (which Meteorolgy is a branch of) which is that if an event has happened before it will happen again. We have seen that this type of event HAS happened before under similar short term climatic circumstances and so it has happened again which means that GW has no role in its occurrence (also, if one goes back even further, there was some horrendous heat back in the same areas in the late 19th Century during another Drought period [the Great Die Up] and many of the records set in the 1930's broke records from that period.
Going back even further with Dendrochronology studies we find that there was a Drought equivalent to the 1930s back about 200 years or so. Before one makes a claim that an event is due to GW, one needs to research the Climatology to make sure that similar events haven't occurred in the past that can not be attributed to that cause.

Steve

[Lindaloo]

Thank you Steve!

[Aslkahuna]

To add to the mix, In July 1934 (also part of the Dust Bowl Drought Period) a severe heatwave resulted in 679 fatalities in the Great Lakes region including 300 deaths in Detroit.

Steve

[stormtruth]

Query: we are seeing patterns and temperatures that also occurred back in the mid 1930's, just how does this relate to Global Warming?

Steve

1930s please
------------------------
The six hottest years on record have all occurred in the last eight years. The year 2005 was the hottest on record. The average global surface temperature of 14.77 degrees Celsius (58.6 degrees Fahrenheit) was the highest since recordkeeping began in 1880.

Note the red on the right in the graphic:
http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/ ... 300122.gif

[Aslkahuna]

I'm not debating GW what I AM saying is that you can not use a single event to prove or disprove GW-the same thing AT SIMILAR LEVELS has been going on for a long time (going back as far as the records go) and based upon Dendrochronology studies back hundreds of years at least. As it stands, the 1936 Heat STILL stands as the worst one in US History in terms of heat and the 1934 one was no slouch and don't forget that is was during the 1913 hot Summer in the West that Death Valley hit 134F STILL the record for the US. Other noteworthy hot Summers occurred in 1954 and 1988. To blame the current hot spell solely on GW ignores Climatology and is bad science. You seem rather contemptuous of what happened in the 1930's despite the fact that then we were dealing with heat far more intense and widespread than now. Then as now, we were dealing with a major Drought in the Plains and West though that drought in terms of intensity and extent was much greater than now. Feedback from the Drought lead to intense Summer heat then as now though now it's not as extensive in duration or overall severity. The 20 year Drought cycle in the Plains and West is one of the most prominent and long enduring cyclic climatic variations known. I think what bothers some people about the past is that they can't pin it on SUV's and GW while they try to pin every single current anomaly on GW without bothering to check to make sure something similar hasn't happened before GW was even an issue which in this case somethign similar very much did. I do believe that GW is occurring but you will find me looking at longer term trends and not trying to blame every departure from normal or the consequences of a long term cyclic pattern that has been in existence for some time on GW.

Steve


Steve