Savage heat baking California and other Western states will continue | Hacker News Reader

Savage heat baking California and other Western states will continue

lite.cnn.com

21 pointsLinuxBender14 comments

They'll research past records but relative humidity is quite related, and yet rarely reported. 110f at 10% humidity is arguably more comfortable than 85f at 80% humidity.

The humidity is also relentless at night. Sure it might be in the 70s and sometimes 60s at night, but when the humidity and dewpoint is so high up, it’s full on oppressive to sleep in.

they scrupulously curate and present to the public via the media every single summer heat record, but curiously winter record lows are not treated the same. Very strange

You must have slept through the entire Texas cold snap saga of February 2021.

It's cherry picking from here on out

> High-temp records for September were set on Thursday in Salt Lake City, with a temperature of 102

Okay so I grew up in Utah about 30 minutes north of Salt Lake and I know for a fact that we would get temperatures up to 102 at least a few times each summer. This is making me question the rest of the article.

According to weather.gov [1] the temperature of Salt Lake City has never exceeded 100 in September. This is making me question the rest of your comments.

[1] https://www.weather.gov/media/slc/ClimateBook/September%20Ma...

You may want to reread the comment you are replying to. You are talking about Salt Lake City. The OP said 30 minutes north of Salt Lake City.

I'm questioning that Salt Lake City never gets above 100F ever in September while living 30 minutes north of Salt Lake City would regularly get above 102 in September.

Now they did say "in the summer" rather than "in September", and I certainly believe it regularly gets up to 102 in Salt Lake City and the surrounding area in the summer. In which case I still question why they would make the comment about 102 in the summer and use that to imply skepticism of the rest of the reporting.

Okay I think I get it now. The implied argument is that if electrical grids can handle 102 regularly in July, why can't they handle them in September?

Sorry for being slow.

(Edit: just saying I now understand the point trying to be made, not that I agree or disagree with it.)

It’s a September record, not a summer record.

The previous record for September 1 and all of September was 100 degF.

The record for June is 107. The record for July is 107. The record for august is 106.

What we are seeing this summer in Seattle and I assume in much of the western US is not extreme heat like we had last year, but sustained higher than normal heat. Our summers are usually moderately warm early, then peak in temperature around the end of July and then begin tapering off. This year the temps have stayed at that elevated level for over 2 months and no indication of an end.

The article does touch on this, but the real issue is urbanization and heat islands which cause higher surface temperatures in cities.

In the Silicon Valley area, at least, existing suburban neighborhoods that were built without air conditioning (because it didn't get hot) are regularly reaching 100-105F in the summer. The change in temperature happened will after these areas were developed.

Also, forests that are away from urban areas are dying off because of high temperatures and low humidity. Heat islands are rounding error in most parts of California.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com