The Weather Almanac: A Reference Guide to Weather, Climate, and Related Issues in the United States and its Key Cities, Twelfth Edition

1133 Pages·2011·179 MB·English

by  Steven L. Horstmeyer(auth.)

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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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WeatherAlmanac,12thEdition ClimateMapsoftheUnitedStates 3
Figure1.2 Meanannualmaximumdewpointtemperature.
Figure1.3 MeanJanuaryminimumdewpointtemperature.
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4 ClimateMapsoftheUnitedStates WeatherAlmanac,12thEdition
Figure1.4 MeanJanuarymaximumdewpointtemperature.
Figure1.5 MeanJulyminimumdewpointtemperature.