"Feelin' Hot, Hot, Hot!"

A couple of days ago, it was hard to even think about walking outside or getting in my car. I did get through it, as I'm sure everyone else in the Midwest did, but man it was tough!

Walking outside from my full 8 hours of work in the air conditioning was extremely hard, I couldn't even breath deeply at one point! The air was so heavy my shoulders felt like they were being pressed to the ground. I can't believe the air didn't just spontaneously combust into tiny little water droplets, or even into flames. Well, maybe it did seeing as the instant I set one foot through the door, I felt water dripping from all my pours... (call it sweat if you want but I'm a girl, I don't sweat I glisten!) I suppose that could be the way the air turns into water droplets spontaneously!

Anyways, on to what I have been thinking about the past couple of days, due to the heat advisories throughout MN and ND. Is this blast of heat from the rainforests of the southern hemisphere actually a heat wave?

I talked about Heat Waves in my last post from the National Weather Service but they didn't really give a clear outline of what a heat wave is. It's hard to classify a heat wave because they are so relative to an area. What I mean by that is, they temperatures are hard to nail down. Each location has a different idea on the temperature, but there is specifics that can be nailed down.
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The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) believes the classification should be as follows:

* The daily maximum temperature exceeds the average maximum temperature by 5 Celsius degrees (9 Fahrenheit degrees)
* This happens for more than five consecutive day.
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The Nation Weather Service (NWS) believes the classification should be as follows:

* A period of abnormally and uncomfortably hot and unusually humid weather.
* Typically a heat wave lasts two or more days.
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So according to those definition did we (my blustery city) make it to that 5 day mark?? Lets take a look!

*** I'll be grabbing all of my information from the NWS Climate reports***

Well Those numbers look pretty dang hot and sticky if you ask me. This flat and flooded town of mine seems to qualify for NWS classification, 6 days of abnormally high temperatures and sticky conditions!

When it comes to the WMO, we only had 2 days with temperatures 9 degrees or more over the average.

Just because the WMO says it isn't a heat wave doesn't mean that they are right. Most people go by what the NWS declares as heat waves and not heat waves. Therefore, my conclusion is, *drum roll*,

Heat Wave Indeed! 

Interesting fact, Moorhead, MN was possibly the hottest place on earth on 7/19/11. Check out the NWS post about it!

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/news/display_cmsstory.php?wfo=fgf&storyid=71074&source=0