Beat the heat?

This past July I wrote about the extreme heat that had been felt on a global level during the first half of 2010. We (the planet Earth) were still on pace for the hottest year ever recorded through October. It seems very likely 2010 will end up as #1. July featured a few days of extreme heat that rivaled anything I had ever felt in Connecticut. I took the photo below with my cell phone at 1:07PM on July 6.


Yes, that says 101.1 degrees. The heat index was a horrendous number. Yuck. The next time I complain about being cold this winter please remind me of that photo. The question on my mind right now is whether or not KBDR, the weather station at Bridgeport’s airport in Stratford, will finally post a month with lower than average temperatures. January 2010 ended up as 0.2 degrees below average. Since then every month has been warmer (and in most cases much warmer) than usual. Here are the measured 2010 averages, in Fahrenheit, for each month with the departure from normal in parentheses:

January: 29.7 (-0.2)
February: 32.5 (+0.6)
March: 45.0 (+5.5)
April: 53.9 (+5.0)
May: 62.1 (+3.1)
June: 71.8 (+3.8)
July: 78.3 (+4.0)
August: 75.1 (+2.0)
September: 69.3 (+3.6)
October: 56.5 (+1.8)
November (through the 22nd): 46.8 (+0.4)

This one is going to come down to the wire. I know many of the birds are enjoying the warmth of the past few days. The Fork-tailed Flycatcher must have certainly felt more at home. I stopped by Cove Island Park to see it yesterday and it was still eating plenty of insects. This latest round of warmth will end as a cold front passes through in mere hours. There is a slight chance of seeing some frozen precipitation on Thanksgiving - can you imagine watching a Fork-tailed Flycatcher in the snow? I hope it moves on sooner rather than later.


Photo © Scott Kruitbosch