WESTFIELD – Forget Northampton – Westfield is now officially the hot spot of the region.
Unfortunately, that title refers to the weather this summer. The city earned that distinction Tuesday when the mercury hit triple digits, topping at 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
Westfield also has the distinction of the highest number of heat waves this summer, when temperatures hit 90 degrees or higher for three consecutive days. According to local CBS 3 Springfield meteorologist and former At-large City Councilor Nick Morganelli of Westfield, residents have now sweltered through five heat waves, while Springfield is second with four.
“Seven of the past eight days have been above 90 degrees, so technically it’s been two (separate) heat waves, but if Sunday, which only hit 88 degrees, had made it to 90 we’d be in an eight-day heat wave,” Morganelli said. “Community-operated cooling centers are usually only open during declared heat waves.”
The 100 degree temperature was recorded Tuesday at Barnes Regional Airport.
“It reached 100 for just a few minutes Tuesday,” Morganelli said. “I think the gusty wind coming down off the mountains in the afternoon contributed to spiking the temperature. When wind comes down off mountains, it compresses, which causes it to heat up.
“The other factor which may have contributed to that 100 degree reading is the amount of tarmac at the airport heating the air,” he said
High temperatures and humidity continued to grip the Westfield area yesterday as temperatures again soared above 90 degrees. But relief from those hot, humid conditions came in the evening as a cold front moved into the region yesterday afternoon.
That relief came as a shift in the jet stream to the south pushed the humid air mass down toward the mid-Atlantic area and brought a cold front through the region. That shift brought severe weather in the form of high winds, lightning and thunderstorms along that front, passing to the south of western Massachusetts, through southern Connecticut, Rhode Island and parts of eastern Massachusetts.
The fact that the storms missed the region means that the area did not get much-needed rain. Morganelli said the jet stream will move north again on Sunday, bringing the possibility of rain late Monday and into Tuesday, when another cool front is expected to moderate both temperatures and humidity for the remainder of next week.
“The jet stream will begin to shift north Sunday, so there will be a little humidity building back in Monday with showers Monday night into Tuesday,” Morganelli said. “Another cool front will move into the region later Tuesday, so it will be nice weather for the end of next week.”
The city certainly has plenty of company this summer. Cities like Chicago, D.C., Atlanta, and Denver have all hit 105 or hotter and there were 170 all-time record highs set across the U.S. in June alone. Many of the records, which have been falling, date back to the Dust Bowl years of the 1930’s. The only cool spot on the map is the West Coast, which has consistently (especially Washington State) come in cooler than average.
“It started with a winter that wasn’t, and hasn’t stopped since,” said Eric Fisher, a Southwick native and on-camera meteorologist for The Weather Channel. “Dry times and record-shattering heat has dominated the past 12 months for much of the nation. In fact, the past 12 months have been the hottest ever recorded across the Lower 48.”
“With anything else, there are pros and cons to our sweltering year,” said Fisher. “On the plus side, severe weather has been MIA. Tornadoes are running below average, because this spring featured much fewer clashes between warm and cold air, since there has been a lack of cold air. The jet stream has been ‘vacationing’ up in Canada, bringing fewer fronts down across the U.S.”
Federal weather forecasters predict the unusually hot, dry weather that has gripped much of the nation will linger into fall, especially for the parched heartland.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s outlook for August through October shows that nearly every state likely will have hotter than normal temperatures. Much of the Midwest is likely to be drier than normal, too.
The forecast issued today indicates a high probability for little rain for all or parts of 15 states for August. The region encompasses Illinois, Indiana, Missouri and Iowa and the states generally surrounding them. The outlook improves a bit over three months, shrinking to just eight states.
Above normal rainfall is forecast for New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Utah and parts of Nevada and southern California through October.
“We are caught up in the worst drought in over 25 years because of that lack of winter snow and spring rain,” said Fisher. “The 1988 drought cost over $70 billion dollars alone. There is no doubt that this year’s will cost many billions of dollars before the dust (no pun intended) settles. And if not for a couple of rain pre-season tropical storms, the situation would be much worse.”
The outlook for the rest of the summer includes more pain for the middle of the country. The epicenter of the heat is expected to stay across the Plains and into parts of the Midwest, where drought will likely deepen and put further pressure on grocery bills for all Americans.
“Meanwhile, I expect the extreme heat will take a break in the Northeast,” said Fisher. “A stormier and cooler pattern should keep conditions closer to normal than they have been for the end of July and early August.”
