Our heat wave is finishing its third day, and there's more on the way. Today's highs got locked into the low and mid 90s, and fell just short of record highs. Also, the humidity was just a tad less, so it was oppressive , but not quite the extremes of the last few days. The jet stream continues to show the big Great Smokies Heat Ridge parked over us Thursday, but some subtle changes will allow a brief respite from the sauna this weekend as highs will drop back into the 80s and the humidity gets cut.
However, that will be short lived. The Heat Ridge should rebuild next week,and it may come back with even hotter temperatures. If there is a minimal saving grace, it may not be as humid as that extreme heat makes its appearance.
From the Fun Facts to Know and Tell department...It's HOT. But, not all surfaces are created equally. Assuming 'x' temperature over the 'cool' grass you can see the darker the surface the hotter it becomes around them. Over concrete, like your driveway, it can be about 10 degrees hotter than over the grass. When you're talking bricks, its' 15 to 20 degrees hotter. The thing about bricks is they also hold the heat well into the night. If you have a brick house, go to the late day sun side and you can feel how warm it is even well into the evening. It's what also helps create the urban heat islands at night. The cities stay warmer at night than in the country. You have to have sympathy for workers who work over pavement and asphalt as it can be about 30 degrees hotter. Luckily, they tore down the old Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. That old Astroturf field could be almost 40 degrees hotter than if it was just a grass field. By the way, most Astroturf is gone and the artificial surfaces, field turf etc, that your kids may be playing on will be hotter than grass, but not as hot as Astroturf.
As we've been saying, just find ways to stay cool for the next few days...and we'll be talking about it again next week.
