According to NCDC, July 2011 was the hottest month in Illinois since 1955. Climate morons complained about the man-made epic heat last summer in Chicago, which averaged 8F cooler than July, 1936. The graph below plots the difference in maximum temperatures on each day of the month.
July of 1936 had twelve days over 100 degrees. July 2011 had no days over 100 degrees.
If we had a repeat of the 1930s, many prominent climate scientists would demand world communism as the only possible fix.
Steve – Why do you keep talking about July? The records were for the first two-thirds of March. You misrepresented the situation in your other post. Furthermore, none of my comments containing factual links to Chicago meteorologist Tom Skilling have appeared after I click the “Post Comment” button. Are you censoring me?
BTW, keep in mind that when the wind is blowing from over Lake Michigan (north through southeast), Chicago experiences a cooling effect. O’Hare (official weather station location) doesn’t feel this much, but Aurora doesn’t feel it at all.
I think Steve is comparing July 1936 to July 2011, so it is a fair comparison. He doesn’t seem to be talking about March at all.
Exactly,
Steve is deceptive by comparing a hot summer to a cool summer. Summer 2011 in Chicago was relatively cool (and I live northwest of O’Hare, far from lake-effect cooling). I do not know what “climate morons” he is referring to.
I am reducing my agreement with Goddard from 90% to 80%, based on wild misinformation on this website.
Free advice: stick to the historical articles, calling out AGW alarmist hypocrisy and failed predictions, and quit cherrypicking (comparing July 1936 to July 2011 in Chicago proves nothing and is deceptive).
Good for you.
According to NCDC, July 2011 was the hottest in 50 years in Illinois.
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/temp-and-precip/time-series/index.php?parameter=tmp&month=7&year=2011&filter=1&state=110&div=0
Instead of throwing around accusations, perhaps you should do some fact checking.
1936 was more than 50 years ago.
I’m still peeved my posts concerning Chicago’s March 2012 heat wave were censored.
How about a post on the idiocy of “Earth Hour?”
Nothing is ever censored here, except for spam and obscenity.
Numerous previous attempts to post comments with links to Tom Skilling’s “Weather Center Blog” failed, but I was able to post other comments, so I know my computer, the internet, and the real-science website were working.
Here’s another attempt at posting the link, but this time to the main website. You can go back and look for posts from earlier in March when the heat wave occurred.
http://www.chicagoweathercenter.com/
As mentioned numerous times previously, but my comments would not appear, Skilling is one of the good guys, not an alarmist. He is highly respected in Chicago. John Coleman also used to forecast in Chicago.
Heat waves happen. It is O.K. Their occurence doesn’t prove AGW. My AGW skeptic beliefs are not swayed by individual weather events.
Note that when I post the direct link, my entire comment never appears, despite two attempts today.
Steve is right: Aurora is the closest official surviving station to Chicago.
I understand that, but O’Hare is the site used when interpreting the local 141-year historical record.
Anyone know how long Aurora USHCN has existed?
That’s all I know. It’s just the convention here. No one locally is trying to be deceptive. Any further explanation is beyond the scope of my knowledge.
When watching the local TV news or reading the Chicago Tribune, the official weather station site is currently O’Hare. We also get info from Midway Airport. Meigs Field no longer exists, and instead of concrete, it is covered with grass on a landfill peninsula jutting out into the lake.
No one is being misleading at all. All historical comparisons I am making are at the same USHCN station in Aurora, which is less than 1200km from downtown Chicago.
I’m pretty sure that July is when it gets hot.
Hmm. Silly me, I live in Chicago and I thought last summer was kind of cool, maybe average at most. Did I miss something?
NCDC shows July, 2011 as being the hottest month since 1955 in Illinois.
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/cag3/il.html
Goddard doesn’t believe in the cooling effect of Lake Michigan, which moderates city temps in summer and winter if the wind is blowing in the right direction.
Aurora is a far-west suburb out by the corn fields. O’Hare is a northwest suburb, barely affected by lake effect.
Since Mayor Daley destroyed Meigs Field, we no longer have an official weather station on the lakefront.
Cut the BS. The closest USHCN station to Chicago is Aurora, and that is the temperature record I use.
Aurora isn’t 1200 km away, but it is far enough to record different temperatures than the city (just watch the daily weather forecasts), despite the UHI effect and lake effect. I’ll let you measure the distance on a map. Concrete island O’Hare, too.
Serious question: Are you aware which year Aurora became the official station for Chicago? I cannot locate this info, and would appreciate if you know. Interpretation of the historical data should be taken in this context.
We still do have a temperature thermometer on the lake. Northerly Island. And, btw, O’Hare is VERY much effected by Lake Michigan’s cooling effects especially this time of year. All it takes is for lake winds to be above 10mph, and they will reach O’Hare and Midway airports at the edges of North and South sides…
As for the large variations in temps between Aurora and say O’Hare or Midway, at times yes, but the overall average highs are not different. Both around 85 degrees during July. O’Hare averages 17 days above 90 degrees during the summer, Midway averages 23 days. Not sure about Aurora.
July 1936 Aurora average high:96.4F (51 days above 90 degrees that summer)
July 1936 Midway average high:91.5F (43 days above 90 degrees that summer)
If the wind is blowing in at Wrigley, you will have lake-effect cooling.
I live just northwest of O’Hare, and we do get some lake-effects. I doubt Aurora does.
I’ve study climate and Chicago’s historical weather with a passion, and like you I follow a lot of Tom Skilling’s comments on WGN’s weatherblog.
The only way for the far west or southern suburbs can get lake cooling is if there is a low center in the Ohio Valley which would produce winds stronger than 30 miles an hour. With this tremendous warmth “cooler by the lake” season will probably be short lived this late Spring and early Summer, as Lake Michigan is some 12 degrees warmer right now than it was last Spring.
There is no doubt global warming or not, that Chicago’s extreme reputation of hot summers and cold winters has moderated in the last 20 years.
Quick factoid. January 2009 Chicago hit a low of -18F at O’Hare and -17F at Midway. Check out how cold it was in the western suburbs
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b8/chicagogeorge/COldestreadingsJan2009.png
Outlying Rochelle about 60 miles west of O’Hare dipped to an eyepopping low of -37F that January. That would have broken the official record for Illinois, but because Rochelle is an automated weather station, it didn’t count.
http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/9355/rochelle37fus5.jpg
Look at this graphic from WGN Weathblog on how our summer 90 degree days pale in recent years to those in the early part of the century
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b8/chicagogeorge/90degreedaysmidway.jpg
Another factoid, July 1934 it hit 109 degrees at Chicago Midway airport, on that day it was only 94 degrees”officially” at the University of Chicago.
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b8/chicagogeorge/MidwayvsUofC1934.jpg
July of 1936 data for both Chicago Midway and the UofC
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b8/chicagogeorge/ChicagoMidwayandUofCJuly1936.jpg
On July 14th Midway recorded 104F, while the Uof C hit “only” 96F. Amazingly, on that day in Collegeville Indiana only about 60 miles south of Chicago, they record 116F!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._state_temperature_extremes
Warmest and coolest summers Chicago (Midway airport 1928 thru 2006)
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b8/chicagogeorge/ChicagosummertrendMidwayairport.jpg
I’ve lived in Chicago(land) for over 37 years.
A couple of facts:
1.The decade 2000-2010 had the fewest 90 and 100 degree temps since records began here. Why? Don’t known, but it’s very likely cyclical and we should be entering a cycle of hotter summers which began in 2010. The 1930′s were by far the most brutally hot summers here, but they were drought summers, so the nights were cooler, and the Mean is reflective of this.
If global warming is supposed to cause more record highs, they aren’t happening in Chicago during the summer.
2. Summers have warmed, daily highs only very slightly, mainly during the night, most likely attributed to the ever growing urban heat island
3. Humidity and dew point levels have shot up dramatically, but this is mainly from the result of farming techniques (more compact crops, especially soy beans which give off a lot of moisture).
4. Winters temps have moderated some from the brutally cold decades of the 1960′s, 70′s and into the first few years of the 1980′s.
5. This past winter was the 9th mildest on record, but we had 4 powerhouse winters with heavy snowfall prior.
6. Our springs as of late have sucked. Cool, gray, and wet over all. This March was obviously an insane anomaly (April 2010 was nice too).
Aurora is 40 miles from the city limits. It’s never been the official station for Chicago. The official stations from the 1870′s to 1940 were located in the Loop and at the University of Chicago, in other words the thermometer was within a quarter mile of Lake Michigan. Midway airport has temperature records going back to 1928, but didn’t become the official station until 1941 (I think) and then the “official” thermometer was moved to O’Hare in 1980. O’Hare has data going back to 1958. There is a huge variation in temps between the lakefront and the two city airports which are both about 11 miles from the lake. The summer highs, and winter lows become even more pronounced the further out in the suburbs you go. For example far south suburban Kankakee recorded 15 days above 95 degrees during the summer of 2010, Midway only managed 1 and O’Hare none. Even today as I right this, here in the south suburbs we will manage to hit 80 degrees, but the city will be lake cooled and stay in the 60′s probably, even cooler right on the lake.