Laura

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This Oughta Be Good

News & Issues > The Weather
 

The Weather

I know, we spend a lot of time talking about the weather, but not only is it a fairly neutral subject (if global warming is left out), it is something we all have in common.

Here is an article from today's Las Vegas Review-Journal about this summer's (relatively) cooler summer and why places like Oklahoma City have been suffering in the unrelenting heat. Regardless of what side you are on in the climate change/it's just normal weather cycles debate, all this hot weather is probably something you'd just as soon had stayed in Las Vegas.

August 6, 2011, Las Vegas Review-Journal"

"Has Las Vegas lost its mojo?

If not its mojo, the city has certainly lost its sense of what a proper summer is supposed to be like.

What happened to 117 degrees? What happened to 115? Heck, we haven't even hit 112 a single time in 2011.

"It's just been a strange year, weather-wise," said Brian Fuis, a spokesman for the National Weather Service in Las Vegas. He has been there for more than 20 years. "This is the strangest year I've ever seen."

What's so strange about this year? Well, for starters, it's been so darn cool out there that we can no longer claim bragging rights to being the hottest major city (except Phoenix) in the country. That's always been our title.

It used to be, we would look at those poor folks on the East Coast or down South complaining when the thermometer hit 102 in some massive "heat wave" and laugh a little.

Try gripping your leather-encased steering wheel when it's 137 degrees inside your car, ya lousy whiners!

But not this year. This year, we're walking with our heads down and our shoulders sagging just a little.

In a typical year, Las Vegas hits 110 degrees or higher nine times, on average. There's a week in the middle of July where it's almost always over 110.

This year? Not so much.

We've hit 110 or more only twice, June 22 and July 2.

This July, in fact, was the coolest July we've had since 2001.

But Memphis? Washington, D.C.? Kansas City? Baltimore? Roanoke? Baton Rouge? Atlantic City? Dallas?

Blazing hot. With bonus humidity.

You want examples? Only one is necessary: It was 114 degrees in Little Rock, Ark., on Wednesday.

Here, we're hovering in the 105 area. With bonus breezes brought in by desert monsoons that drop almost no rain.

"I'm used to 117, 120. I've been here 30 years," said Martha Maken, who was relaxing at Bob Baskin Park with her grandchildren the other day.

"This is the first summer I can remember experiencing this kind of heat," said Grace Vazquez, also hanging out at the park.

She said she has lived here for more than a decade. Usually in the summer, she has got to hide indoors once the sun gets high in the sky.

Not this year.

Over at another picnic table, Pedro Gil sat in the shade with his family. He said he has been in Las Vegas for six years. Before that, he was in Colorado for a few years.

"This is like a Colorado heat wave," he said.

Fuis, the weather service guy, said there are reasons for all of this. The high pressure system that usually sits over the Four Corners area -- that's where Arizona, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico meet -- all summer long isn't there this year. It moved east.

It's causing those hot as blazes temperatures from Texas to Virginia.

Couple that with low pressure systems that keep coming down the West Coast, and you've got the desert southwest bottled up between two competing systems.

Which means we hover at a pleasant 105 degrees.

Will the suffering ever end? Will Las Vegas get its mojo back soon? Are we going to defy the odds, get to 110 again this summer, and reclaim our rightful position as the nation's (except Phoenix) metropolitan champion of extremely hot weather.

"It's not out of the question," Fuis said. Then he paused, as if to consider a more complete answer.

"But, uh," he said, and then he made a sound that could have been a cross between "yes" and "no."

We'll call that a maybe.

That is how weather forecasting works."

posted on Aug 6, 2011 11:43 AM ()

Comments:

It's hotter than usual even for Florida but not like what I'm hearing from the Midwest and Southwest. Vegas should count its blessings.
comment by tealstar on Aug 7, 2011 9:12 PM ()
They are grateful, believe me. Their humidity was 4% yesterday when I looked at their forecast online. Imagine that.
reply by troutbend on Aug 10, 2011 12:21 PM ()
I would gladly give up record heat for the summer.
comment by elderjane on Aug 7, 2011 8:01 AM ()
Extreme heat is not something a place wants to be famous for.
reply by troutbend on Aug 10, 2011 12:22 PM ()
We just had 12 minutes of rain--and now the humidity will go way up!!!

Actually the past 3 winters we have had more 'cold' evenings (under 60--okay, okay) and afternoons with high in the 60s than before.

What I love are the people from Wisconsin who wear heavy jackets, ear muffs and complain how cold it is and how their blood thinned out since they moved here!
comment by greatmartin on Aug 6, 2011 1:54 PM ()
We can really notice our tolerance for cold and heat changing as we move between our two houses. In November when I first get to Las Vegas I'm outside in shirt sleeves and the year-round folks are bundled up.
reply by troutbend on Aug 10, 2011 12:24 PM ()
As I said before,will not complain and why,no need to.This will all come to an end soon.It does every year and before you know it.All will say it is to damn cold.But we get along.
comment by fredo on Aug 6, 2011 1:08 PM ()
I know you're tired of talk of the weather. I thought this article showing how cities like Oklahoma City are rivaling Las Vegas for heat was significant.
reply by troutbend on Aug 6, 2011 1:12 PM ()
I've been in LV when they halted aircraft takeoffs because of high temps.
comment by jondude on Aug 6, 2011 1:00 PM ()
I've been in Boston when they loaded the passengers onto the airplane one at a time, carefully monitoring weight and balance of the aircraft in order to be able to take off in the heat and humidity.
reply by troutbend on Aug 6, 2011 1:04 PM ()
Ah. A cool wave!
comment by jondude on Aug 6, 2011 1:00 PM ()
Here in Colorado it has been cooler, too, and the fox is running late on losing his winter coat.
reply by troutbend on Aug 6, 2011 1:06 PM ()
This has been a crazy week for weather here also--we do need rain and people, to a certain extent, were looking forward to what was suppose to be Hurricane Emily today--TV went crazy, as usual, with do this, do that--heck if you aren't prepared by August for hurricane season you get what you deserve!--in any case Emily fell apart yesterday and though it is cloudy we might just have another rainy afternoon hour.
Also, we were, once again, one of the 'cooler places' in the USA yesterday
comment by greatmartin on Aug 6, 2011 12:33 PM ()
I wonder if winter is going to come earlier this year, not that you would probably notice winter down there.
reply by troutbend on Aug 6, 2011 1:07 PM ()
When I was seven years old in 1957, my family took a long summer road trip out west, all over the place. We were gone about six weeks. Of course, I remember Las Vegas, first because I took my first front dive off the motel pool diving board, and second, because it was 110 degrees, the hottest place I had ever been before or since. Needless to say, my folks had one heck of a time getting me out of that pool....
comment by marta on Aug 6, 2011 12:02 PM ()
I would love to time-travel to the Las Vegas of the 1950s, back when cars didn't even have air conditioning, and no doubt the motels just had window units, not central air. For maybe a day or less, now that I think about it. I just want to look around and get the heck back to refrigerated living. I think the development of cooling technology has had a lot to do with the explosive growth of cities in the desert like Phoenix and Las Vegas.
reply by troutbend on Aug 6, 2011 1:11 PM ()
Lucky you! 105 still sounds hot enough tho!
comment by kristilyn3 on Aug 6, 2011 11:59 AM ()
Well, lucky Las Vegans, anyway. Maybe we'll be able to notice that our AC bills there are lower this year than previous years.
reply by troutbend on Aug 6, 2011 1:08 PM ()

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