The Weather Almanac: A Reference Guide to Weather, Climate, and Related Issues in the United States and its Key Cities, Twelfth Edition PDF
Preview The Weather Almanac: A Reference Guide to Weather, Climate, and Related Issues in the United States and its Key Cities, Twelfth Edition
P1:OTA/XYZ P2:ABC JWBS077-fm JWBS077-Horstmeyer July30,2011 19:18 PrinterName:YettoCome THE WEATHER ALMANAC P1:OTA/XYZ P2:ABC JWBS077-fm JWBS077-Horstmeyer July30,2011 19:18 PrinterName:YettoCome THE WEATHER ALMANAC A reference guide to weather, climate, and related issues in the United States and its key cities TWELFTH EDITION Steven L. Horstmeyer A JOHN WILEY & SONS, INC., PUBLICATION P1:OTA/XYZ P2:ABC JWBS077-fm JWBS077-Horstmeyer July30,2011 19:18 PrinterName:YettoCome Copyright©2011byJohnWiley&Sons,Inc.Allrightsreserved. PublishedbyJohnWiley&Sons,Inc.,Hoboken,NewJersey. PublishedsimultaneouslyinCanada. 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Wileyalsopublishesitsbooksinavarietyofelectronicformats.Somecontentthatappearsinprintmaynotbeavailableinelectronicformats.Formore informationaboutWileyproducts,visitourwebsiteatwww.wiley.com LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Horstmeyer,StevenL. Theweatheralmanac:areferenceguidetoweather,climate,andrelatedissuesintheUnitedStatesanditskeycities. TwelfthEdition/StevenL.Horstmeyer p.cm. Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN978-0-470-41325-8(cloth) PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica oBookISBN:978-1-118-01521-6 ePDFISBN:978-1-118-01519-3 ePubISBN:978-1-118-01520-9 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 P1:OTA/XYZ P2:ABC JWBS077-fm JWBS077-Horstmeyer July30,2011 19:18 PrinterName:YettoCome Contents Preface vii Nome,Alaska 491 Flagstaff,Arizona 496 1 ClimateMapsoftheUnitedStates 1 Phoenix,Arizona 501 Tucson,Arizona 506 LittleRock,Arkansas 511 2 RenewableEnergy 25 Eureka,California 516 Fresno,California 521 LosAngeles,InternationalAirport 526 3 ExtremeWeather—Disasters, Redding,California 531 Sacramento,California 536 Records,Floods,Heat,Cold,and SanDiego,California 541 Blizzards 81 SanFrancisco,California 546 ColoradoSprings,Colorado 551 Denver,Colorado 556 4 Thunderstorms,Lightning,Hail, GrandJunction,Colorado 561 andTornadoes 167 WindsorLocks,Connecticut 566 Washington,D.C. 571 Wilmington,Delaware 576 5 TropicalCyclones 235 DaytonaBeach,Florida 581 Jacksonville,Florida 586 KeyWest,Florida 591 6 ElNin˜o,LaNin˜a,and Miami,Florida 596 theSouthernOscillation 297 Orlando,Florida 601 Tampa,Florida 606 Atlanta,Georgia 611 7 GlobalWarmingandClimate Savannah,Georgia 616 Change 317 Hilo,Hawaii 621 Honolulu,Hawaii 626 Boise,Idaho 631 8 AirPollution 353 Chicago,Illinois 636 Peoria,Illinois 641 Springfield,Illinois 646 9 ClimateDatafromAround Evansville,Indiana 651 theWorld 371 Indianapolis,Indiana 656 SouthBend,Indiana 661 WorldWeatherData(Table9.2) 388 DesMoines,Iowa 666 DodgeCity,Kansas 671 10 LocalClimatological Data Wichita,Kansas 676 Topeka,Kansas 681 AnnualSummaries2009 457 Jackson,Kentucky 686 Birmingham,Alabama 461 Lexington,Kentucky 691 Mobile,Alabama 466 Louisville,Kentucky 696 Anchorage,Alaska 471 NewOrleans,Louisiana 701 Barrow,Alaska 476 Shreveport,Louisiana 706 Fairbanks,Alaska 481 Caribou,Maine 711 Juneau,Alaska 486 P1:OTA/XYZ P2:ABC JWBS077-fm JWBS077-Horstmeyer July30,2011 19:18 PrinterName:YettoCome (cid:2) vi Contents WeatherAlmanac,12thEdition Portland,Maine 716 Avoca/Wilkes-Barre/Scranton,Pennsylvania 941 Baltimore,Maryland 721 Erie,Pennsylvania 946 Boston,Massachusetts 726 Harrisburg,Pennsylvania 951 Worcester,Massachusetts 731 Philadelphia,Pennsylvania 956 Detroit,Michigan 736 Pittsburgh,Pennsylvania 961 GrandRapids,Michigan 741 SanJuan,PuertoRico 966 HoughtonLake,Michigan 746 Providence,RhodeIsland 971 MarquetteCountryAirport,Michigan 751 Charleston,SouthCarolina 976 Duluth,Minnesota 756 Aberdeen,SouthDakota 981 InternationalFalls,Minnesota 761 RapidCity,SouthDakota 986 Minneapolis,Minnesota 766 SiouxFalls,SouthDakota 991 Jackson,Mississippi 771 Knoxville,Tennessee 996 InternationalAirport,KansasCity,Missouri 776 Memphis,Tennessee 1001 St.Louis,Missouri 781 Nashville,Tennessee 1006 Billings,Montana 786 Amarillo,Texas 1011 GreatFalls,Montana 791 Dallas-FortWorth,Texas 1016 Helena,Montana 796 ElPaso,Texas 1021 Scottsbluff,Nebraska 801 Houston,Texas 1026 NorthPlatte,Nebraska 806 SanAntonio,Texas 1031 Omeha,Nebraska 811 SaltLakeCity,Utah 1036 Elko,Nevada 816 Burlington,Vermont 1041 LasVegas,Nevada 821 Norfolk,Virginia 1046 Reno,Nevada 826 Richmond,Virginia 1051 Concord,NewHempshire 831 Roanoke,Virginia 1056 AtlanticCity,N.A.F.E.C. 836 Seattle,Seattle-TacomaAirport 1061 Newark,NewJersey 841 Spokane,Washington 1066 Albuquerque,NewMexico 846 Charleston,WestVirginia 1071 Albany,NewYork 851 GreenBay,Wisconsin 1076 Buffalo,NewYork 856 LaCrosse,Wisconsin 1081 NewYork,NewYork 861 Madison,Wisconsin 1086 Rochester,newYork 866 Milwaukee,Wisconsin 1091 Syracuse,NewYork 871 Cheyenne,Wyoming 1096 Asheville,NorthCarolina 876 Raleigh/Durham,NorthCarolina 881 Fargo,NorthDakota 886 11 ATimeLineofMeteorology: Williston,NorthDakota 891 9000B.C.–2000A.D. 1101 Cleveland,Ohio 896 Columbus,Ohio 901 IndexofAcronymsandAbbreviations 1117 Cincinnati,OH 906 Toledo,Ohio 911 OkalahomaCity,Oklahoma 916 GeneralIndex 1119 Tulsa,Oklahoma 921 Burns,Oregon 926 IndexofPersons 1127 Pendleton,Oregon 931 Portland,Oregon 936 IndexofSelectStormsandEvents 1129 P1:OTA/XYZ P2:ABC JWBS077-Preface JWBS077-Horstmeyer June15,2011 7:10 PrinterName:YettoCome Preface WheneveranestablishedworklikeTheWeatherAlmanacis 20th century. Chapter 6 is updated with all new easy-to- updated,theprimaryconcernoftheeditoristoremaintrue followdiagrams. tothetraditionsestablishedinearliereditions.Theeditoris The second entirely new chapter is Chapter 7: Global facedwithretainingsomematerial,updatingothermaterial, Warming and Climate Change. As a professional meteo- andsayinggoodbyetomaterialthathasseenbetterdays. rologist deeply concerned with human impact on our envi- The12theditionofTheWeatherAlmanacismybestef- ronment, I am continually dismayed by the amount of bad fortatstayingtruetothehardworkofmypredecessors,but information out there about global warming. I have inten- at the same time move the book in the direction that my tionallysteeredclearofforecastsandhopethischapterclar- 33 years as a broadcast meteorologist, public speaker, and ifiesphysicalprinciples,researchmethods,theroleofproxy educatortellmeismostusefultotheuserofthebookseek- data,andwhatclimatemodelsareandwhattheyarenot. inganswerstoweatherquestions. Air Pollution is the topic of Chapter 8 and contains the If you are looking at material that contains numbers or latestavailabledatathatcomesprimarilyfromtheUSEnvi- maps or graphs, admittedly most of the book, then you are ronmentalProtectionAgency(EPA). reaping the rewards of the hard work of James Patterson. Chapter 9 contains international climate data. I have in- During the course of this rewrite, James was working full- cluded more locations (321) and each location has more andpart-timejobs,finishinghismeteorologydegree,buying data. While this does not give a complete look at Earth’s ahouse,andstartingafamily.Healwaysfoundtimetoget climate,mostplacesyoucaneasilygoarecovered. thejobdone.Hehasagreatabilitytofindproblemnumbers InChapter10,youwillfindclimatedatafor128UScities andfixthem.ThanksJames.James,didIsaythanks? in the form of the 2009 Local Climatological Data Annual Chapter1contains42climatemapsoftheUnitedStates Summary.Thereisagreatdealofinformationhereoneach and communicate what maps can best the spatial patterns station,andthereare20morestationsthanthelastedition. that determine what we call climate. Chapter 2 is all new We also graphed the daily high temperatures, low tempera- andaresponsetoaheightenedinterestinrenewableenergy. tures,and precipitation for 2009 so you can see ata glance In Chapter 2, you will find detailed information about the what2009waslikeineachcity. solar radiation and wind climates of the United States and Chapter11isanannotatedtimelineofhumaninteraction many wind roses. They are hard to come by, but there are with and knowledge of the atmosphere. As of this writing, manyhere. thereisnootherpopularreferenceworkwithsuchalisting. Ihavelumpedthemanyvarietiesofextremeandrecord- Historybuffsshouldfindthisinteresting. settingweatherintoChapter3andduglongandhardtoas- Icannowanswerthequestionmywifeputtomeabouta sembleachapterwithsomeverydifficulttofindbutimpor- weekago.Yeshoney,younowgetyourhusbandback. tant weather information. I have stayed with the customary chapters for severe and tropical weather (Chapters 4 and 5, StevenL.Horstmeyer respectively). Chapter 6 covers El Nin˜o/La Nin˜a, perhaps August23,2010 themostimportantclimatediscoveryofthelasthalfof the Cincinnati,OH P1:JsY JWBS077-c01 JWBS077-Horstmeyer July28,2011 2:43 PrinterName:YettoCome 1 Climate Maps of the United States • WHATISCLIMATE? a climatology that describes what to expect. The average afternoontemperatureforagivenplacemaygiveyouanidea Weather is the day-to-day, sometimes minute-to-minute, ofhowcomfortablethelocationisbutincludingahumidity changes in the atmosphere. Everyone has an intuitive idea variable and wind speed will give you a better idea of the what weather is. But when the time period is extended to “comfortclimate.” months, seasons, years, decades, and longer, we talk about Ifyouareprojectingtheheatingcostoflocatinganewof- climate.Climateisthelong-termstateoftheatmosphere.It ficefacility,youwouldwantdetailedinformationaboutlow- ishowyouexpecttheatmospheretobehave. esttemperatures,howlongthetemperatureiscolderthana The change of seasons is part of what climate is. In particularvalue,howsunnythelocationis,andhowwindyit the Midwestern United States, residents expect hot, hu- is.Eachweathervariableispartofthe“naturalgasforheat- mid summer weather to gradually yield to autumn, char- ing” climatology, and each affects the demand for natural acterized by cool mornings and toasty warm afternoons gasforheating. dominated by blue sky. In southern and central California, Insummera“residentialcooling”climatologywouldin- residents know that the brown hillsides that dominate the cludethesamevariablesasforheatingalongwithahumidity landscape from late spring into late autumn will begin to variabletoaccountforelectricalpowerdemand. green as seasonal rains replenish soil moisture and plants Thinkofitthisway:weatherisarainyday,whileclimate begintogrow. isarainyplace.AllUScitieshaverainydays,butSeattlehas In Hawaii there is hardly any seasonal temperature a rainy climate. Portland, ME, has occasional hot days, but change at all, but there are subtle differences from summer Orlando,FL,hasahotclimate. intowinterinwindandrainevents. Climateismuchmorethanseasonalchange.Ithasbeen called the “average” of all weather, but it is still more. It can also be the daily, weekly, monthly, or annual range of • THECLIMATEMAPS a weather variable. Climate can be the frequency of occur- rence of any weather event such as lightning. In addition The 42 maps in this chapter represent a detailed picture, a there are more complex statistical measures, such as stan- climatology, of what you can expect over the long term in darddeviationthatmeasuresthevariationabouttheaverage, thelower48states. thatcanhelpdefineclimate. Thedatawerepreparedandquality-controlledbytheNa- Climate can be the average relative humidity at a spe- tional Climatic Data Center (NCDC) of National Oceanic cific hour of the day or the number of days the relative hu- and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for the Climate midity drops below a certain value. The number of days MapsoftheUnitedStates(CLIMAPS)database.Themaps snow fall exceeds a given amount gives you an idea of wereredesignedandreplottedforgrayscalereproductionin the frequency of traffic snarls, while the number of hours thisvolume. the average wind exceeds a given value during a year If you have experience with using or creating contour may help decide about the placement of a wind-powered maps, you may be accustomed to having a fixed data inter- turbine. val between contour lines. That almost never works when Climatecanbedefinedhoweveryouneedittobe.Youde- creatingclimatemapsbecausethedistributionofclimateis cidewhatweathervariablesaffectyourprojectanddevelop not regular and there are many factors that complicate how TheWeatherAlmanac:AReferenceGuidetoWeather,Climate,andRelatedIssuesintheUnitedStatesandItsKeyCities,TwelfthEdition.SteveHorstmeyer. ©2011JohnWiley&Sons,Inc.Published2011byJohnWiley&Sons,Inc. 1 P1:JsY JWBS077-c01 JWBS077-Horstmeyer July28,2011 2:43 PrinterName:YettoCome (cid:2) 2 ClimateMapsoftheUnitedStates WeatherAlmanac,12thEdition quickly values change. The contour intervals used here are Tohelpguideyouinusingtheclimatemaps,manyhave theintervalschosenbytheNCDC. specific values plotted for a contour or an area. Doing this Elevationisprobablythemostdifficultcomplicatingfac- isalwaysproblematicbecausemapdatacanbeobscuredby tortodealwith.Whenyouexaminethemapsinthischapter, thenumbers.Wecarefullyconsideredtheplacementofeach youwillseehowsmallsomeoftheareascanbebecauseof andeverynumbersoastominimizecoveringfinedetail. dramaticchanges inclimateover ashortdistance inmoun- Notalltheclimatemapswepreparedareinthischapter; tainousterrain.Forthatreasonitwasdecidednottousefill manyfitbetterinchaptersonspecifictopics. patternsbecausetheycanbeveryconfusingwhensmallar- Climate maps covering sunshine, solar radiation, cloud easareinvolved. cover, and wind variables are in Chapter 2, covering solar Formostoftheclimatemapsweoptedtouseasymmetri- andwindrenewableenergy-generatingtechnologies. calshadingscalerangingfromwhiteattheminimumvalue The climatology of US severe weather is in Chapter through medium–dark gray back to white at the maximum 4, with maps of tornado tracks, hail, and lightning occur- value.Totheunaccustomedthismayseemconfusing,butit rence,andtheclimaticinformationaboutAtlanticandeast- isstandardpracticeinmanysciencepublications.Thereare ern Pacific hurricanes is included in Chapter 5. There are a few geographical areas where maximum white and min- mapsdealingwithspecificaspectsofpastclimate(paleocli- imum white come close together, such as from the Central mate) in Chapter 7. Extensive numerical information about Valley of California into the Sierra Nevada Mountains. In 128 US cities is found in Chapter 10, while weather data areassuchasthisyouwillneedtobecarefultointerpretthe for 321 locations outside the United States are found in datecorrectly. Chapter9. Figure1.1 Meanannualminimumdewpointtemperature. P1:JsY JWBS077-c01 JWBS077-Horstmeyer July28,2011 2:43 PrinterName:YettoCome (cid:2) WeatherAlmanac,12thEdition ClimateMapsoftheUnitedStates 3 Figure1.2 Meanannualmaximumdewpointtemperature. Figure1.3 MeanJanuaryminimumdewpointtemperature. P1:JsY JWBS077-c01 JWBS077-Horstmeyer July28,2011 2:43 PrinterName:YettoCome (cid:2) 4 ClimateMapsoftheUnitedStates WeatherAlmanac,12thEdition Figure1.4 MeanJanuarymaximumdewpointtemperature. Figure1.5 MeanJulyminimumdewpointtemperature.
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