Heat Wave Intensity is Fay Related

When the thermometer touched 93 Wednesday afternoon in Huntington the highest point of the summer heat was reached. SO FAR!

In Charleston, the hump day high of 91 set up a very good night for the debut of Summerfest on the Mound and for baseball at Appy Park where the Power still has some work to do to make the playoffs. Here my summer forecast of 17 ninety degree days is skating on thin ice. I say that since we have 90 on the board for the next 3 days at least and we have now measured 90 on 16 different days at nearby Oakes Field.

Now travel the time tunnel with me back to last August when late month temperatures were routinely soaring to 95,96,97 even 98. Then like now, the last summer dryness had parched our lawns.

This year, we are actually at the tail end of a wet summer for many, though in the River Cities of Huntington-Ashland-Ironton and parts of Northeastern Kentucky and Southern Ohio, the past 6 weeks have averaged drier than normal. Not a drought, but drier than usual.

But Bobby Star from Mingo County near Naugatuck begs to differ. "We are in a severe drought here, as bad as last summer. We had nine inches of rain in May and since then next to nothing! Martin and Northern Mingo are bone dry while Logan, Pike and the rest of the Coalfileds are not nearly as dry."

What Bobby is describing is a pocket of drought in an otherwise fertile Coafield region this summer. Sure lawns have browned here in late August thru much of the region, but a wet spring-summer season is the big picture with late season pockets of extreme dryness.

Now as Tropical Storm Fay lashes Florida with torrential rains, she is having an indirect effect on our weather. Fay’s circulation is promoting a warming and drying effect on our weather. And this process is just starting, so my gut says we may hit 95 degrees before the rains from Fay arrive next week and likely put an end to the late August dry spell.

By the way, in the drought of 2008, autumn highs in the mid 90s were registered as late as Columbus Day! To me that was as rare an event as i have witnessed in my 20 years here at WSAZ!