Houston Hits 100--unfortunately

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TexasMetBlake
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Today, Houston (IAH) recorded 100 degrees. I'm officially protesting the ASOS at Bush. What a racket.
unome
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ASOS is used at IAH, Hobby, Hooks, Pearland & Sugar Land airports, also at Conroe, Huntsville, Galveston & Lake Jackson in SE TX area. It's a joint effort between the NWS, FAA & DOD - tracking weather conditions where it's needed most - at airports with planes carrying thousands of passenger, freight and military flights taking off & landing every day. It's pretty much the same story in every single state in the US & Canada, with much of the world trending toward it as well.

Will it compare on a side-by-side basis with weather measurements taken 100 or even 50 years ago? Certainly not, but that's not it's intended purpose. It's technology, it changes and improves with time, thankfully. Our "concrete jungle" certainly affects current temperature readings, but then Houston is pretty much a concrete & asphalt jungle. Check out the road sensors from Harris County http://pri.hcoem.org/txdot/ for comparison.

A few links for anyone who is interested in learning more:

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/asos/

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/ost/asostech.html

http://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/weather/asos/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automated_ ... er_station
TexasMetBlake
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The problem is the data is so inconsistent. The official site in Houston has been moved several, several times. This is the 13th year in a row that Houston has seen 100 degrees...the longest streak in city history. Yet scientists take the inaccurate data and uses it as ammunition to propel their global warming agenda. IAH is hot. The air currents are always disturbed even at 3 am. Planes land around the hour there. The biggest noticeable change is overnight lows. This past winter, during the big arctic outbreak in January, the following cities had temps well into the teens:

Conroe: 15
Sugar Land: 16
Hooks: 16
College Station: 18
Kingwood: 16

IAH: 20

Bush was nearly 4 or 5 degrees warmer than surround areas where people actually live and the high temp managed to hit 33 degrees while other locations stayed in the upper 20s for highs. Now-a-days, it's getting harder and harder to get cold as more and more concrete is being poured around Bush with 2 more runways planned. Did you know that our coldest high temperature in Houston is 20 degrees set in Feb 1899? Our coldest high in January is 21 degrees followed closely by 24 degrees in the same month. Those are HIGH temperatures. Today, those temps seem impossible as we have not seen anything like that since 1989.

It's not just a cold issue, but overnight lows have come way up with many nights being spent in the 80s. It's sad that the coolest high temperature we've seen the past couple of weeks was set or could be set this afternoon after a rainstorm. There's no doubt that it has been hot, sure. Other ASOS' across the area reported the same. It was only aggravated today by subsidence on the fringe of a broken squall line that moved in thanks to the ex TD5. But something is up with the ASOS at IAH and needs to be researched.

Not only that, but it's a shame that the NWS makes such a big deal over heat with their advisories all over the place that eventually become a moot point after being raised day after day after day. What about the cold windchills of the past winter? What about the single digit wind chills? Our criteria is a joke. We have to be below zero for windchills to be issued. Yet, our wind chills were the coldest in over a decade. We hit 100 all the time. We know it's hot here. The criteria needs to be adjusted here as people are far more used to the heat than the cold. Sometimes I really wonder if there is not another agenda at stake here.
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Ptarmigan
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Candy Cane wrote:The problem is the data is so inconsistent. The official site in Houston has been moved several, several times. This is the 13th year in a row that Houston has seen 100 degrees...the longest streak in city history. Yet scientists take the inaccurate data and uses it as ammunition to propel their global warming agenda. IAH is hot. The air currents are always disturbed even at 3 am. Planes land around the hour there. The biggest noticeable change is overnight lows. This past winter, during the big arctic outbreak in January, the following cities had temps well into the teens:

Conroe: 15
Sugar Land: 16
Hooks: 16
College Station: 18
Kingwood: 16

IAH: 20

Bush was nearly 4 or 5 degrees warmer than surround areas where people actually live and the high temp managed to hit 33 degrees while other locations stayed in the upper 20s for highs. Now-a-days, it's getting harder and harder to get cold as more and more concrete is being poured around Bush with 2 more runways planned. Did you know that our coldest high temperature in Houston is 20 degrees set in Feb 1899? Our coldest high in January is 21 degrees followed closely by 24 degrees in the same month. Those are HIGH temperatures. Today, those temps seem impossible as we have not seen anything like that since 1989.

It's not just a cold issue, but overnight lows have come way up with many nights being spent in the 80s. It's sad that the coolest high temperature we've seen the past couple of weeks was set or could be set this afternoon after a rainstorm. There's no doubt that it has been hot, sure. Other ASOS' across the area reported the same. It was only aggravated today by subsidence on the fringe of a broken squall line that moved in thanks to the ex TD5. But something is up with the ASOS at IAH and needs to be researched.

Not only that, but it's a shame that the NWS makes such a big deal over heat with their advisories all over the place that eventually become a moot point after being raised day after day after day. What about the cold windchills of the past winter? What about the single digit wind chills? Our criteria is a joke. We have to be below zero for windchills to be issued. Yet, our wind chills were the coldest in over a decade. We hit 100 all the time. We know it's hot here. The criteria needs to be adjusted here as people are far more used to the heat than the cold. Sometimes I really wonder if there is not another agenda at stake here.
You raise a very good point. Everytime I use statistical data I am very cautious coming from the Statistical Specialist here. I will flag it if it from a different location. Anyways, we could use more weather stations and not just rely on airports, which is often the official report.
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txflagwaver
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Candy said: "Not only that, but it's a shame that the NWS makes such a big deal over heat with their advisories all over the place that eventually become a moot point after being raised day after day after day. What about the cold windchills of the past winter? What about the single digit wind chills? Our criteria is a joke. We have to be below zero for windchills to be issued. Yet, our wind chills were the coldest in over a decade. We hit 100 all the time. We know it's hot here. The criteria needs to be adjusted here as people are far more used to the heat than the cold. Sometimes I really wonder if there is not another agenda at stake here."


It may well be hot here...and we all know it...but I think people's health is endangered more by excessive heat than excessive cold in our area. So I can see the need for attention to a high heat index and the advisories issued.
txagwxman
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Min Avg Temp
August 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006
Houston IAH 77.9 76.1 75.3 76.4 75.7
Conroe 73.8 72.8 73.1 72.8 71.6
Hooks Airport 74.4 72.9 73.1 75.3 75.2
Sugar Land 75.4 74.3 75.6 76.1 74.5
Houston Hobby 77 76.9 75.8 78 76.6
Delta for IAH 2.75 1.875 0.9 0.85 1.225


IAH is definitely warmer than it was a few years ago...look at the min temp for August compared to neighbors.
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