Unusual Heat In Usual Places

UPDATE: Check out the interesting comments below regarding the Honolulu record temperatures, one of which is from an AccuWeather.com Meteorologist.

ORIGINAL POST: There has been unusually hot weather this month in places you'd expect it to be hot (but not this hot): Florida and Hawaii. The heat is spreading into many states this week; see our Weather Headlines at right for more details. In fact it's over 100 as we speak, in southern Georgia, Alabama and northern Florida:

3 PM TEMPERATURES MONDAY ()

Here's a photo one of our readers uploaded from Pensacola, Florida on Saturday:

The heat wasn't widespread over the weekend, with only about 60 records broken and another 57 tied since Thursday, but the temperature readings themselves are what is impressive. It's (almost) always hot in Florida, of course, but it's not usually over 100 degrees because the state is surrounded by water. For example, on Saturday Tallahassee, Florida hadn't seen the century mark since 1998 but broke that record at 103, while Allatoona Dam, Georgia (which hadn't been above 97 since 1952!) spiked to 102!

Florida will get relief tonight from thunderstorms, but unfortunately they will be coming from an unusual direction (north to south) which could surprise people, and they will be unusually severe for Florida (another misconception is that Florida has a lot of very severe weather - it doesn't normally). Tonight's storms could feature wind damage and lots of lightning (even by FL standards). Check our Weather Headlines at right for more info.

And Florida's not the only place... earlier this month, the state of Hawaii had quite the heat wave, with a week's worth of 92 degree readings at Honolulu, partially responsible for 11 record highs that have been broken or tied this month (9 in a row - an incredible heat wave but any standards). It's not as hot as you might think in Hawaii, the average high temperature is only 87 in Honolulu in June.

Comments (2): Michael Sager:

More on the Honolulu records: The temperature sensor at the airport ASOS was fixed about a week ago, ending the heat wave. The records should be revoked. There is a weather station at the Pacific Typhoon Warning Center (PTWC) located a few miles away and the same distance from the ocean, and temperatures there have been near normal, with high temperatures mostly in the middle 80s and low temperatures mostly around 70. Fixing the ASOS temperature sensor has brought the high temperatures in line, but the nighttime lows are still influenced by the acres of asphalt surrounding the ASOS.

Posted by Michael Sager | June 23, 2009 12:03 PM Jim Bob:

"Whats up with That" web site has an interesting piece on the Hawaii records. Basically, the site is at the airport,surrounded by asphalt. According to an official there, the site is for aviation purposes, not climatology.