The Capital Weather Gang posted an interesting story today about the unprecedented heat record that New Orleans has experienced this hot summer. On 43 nights this year, the temperature did not drop below 80 F. This blows the previous record of 13 nights in 2010 out of the water. Unusually warm nights are associated with heat stress on humans and livestock, since mammals need time to cool off at night, and when the temperature is this warm, they get little relief. Warm nights also have adverse effects on some crops. You can read their complete blog post here.
It is noteworthy that these counts of both daytime highs and nighttime lows have been increasing since the 1970s. Today Athens GA broke the airport record for the number of maximum temperatures at or above 85 F with 135 days so far this year, breaking the old annual record of 134 days set in 2010. (The combined city/airport record is 150 days set in 1925, which we will probably not beat this year–or at least we hope not!) Stations across the Southeast have been coming close to or surpassing records in runs of days and total number of days at or above threshold values this year. While we have set very few record daily high temperatures, the consistency of the day to day warmth is amazing, and is resulting in month after month of above normal temperatures.
