Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Record heat wave in the lower 48

Of course, greenhouse gasses and global warming have nothing to do with this, right? It's just summer. Little Shelter from Record Heat screams the LA Times.

The structure of large cities exacerbates extreme heat by trapping radiation - an effect known as the "urban heat island," said Johannes Feddema, a visiting scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Light is absorbed by dark surfaces like asphalt and concrete; when the city begins to cool in the evening, those surfaces release the heat they have absorbed, occasionally increasing the temperature by as much as 50 degrees.

Sunday night weather reports showed that in the lower 48, every state except North Dakota reached triple digits. That's hot.

6 comments:

billie said...

now diva- if they acknowledged global warming- the companies and the rest of us americans would have to start changing the way we do things. that's not good for keeping the population complacent, happy and voting repub. oh wait....

DivaJood said...

betmo, exactly.

dawn said...

i guess nobody noticed the tsnumi or the masses Hurricanes or the winter weather problems. I was thinking maybe there would be armeggedon, oh no it's just people and big business

DivaJood said...

Dawn, last year's massive huricanes don't count, because that only really affected poor people, don't you understand? Ugh.

dawn said...

I understand more than you know

DivaJood said...

Oh, I meant poor people and Mexico. So, not really important at all.