Tag: temperature

I Love You. I Hate Your Thermometer

It’s not that I mind getting the home observations. It’s that I don’t want to disappoint you but saying you’re wrong.

We hit 103&#176 at Hartford, Windsor Locks (Bradley Airport) and Bridgeport on Friday. That’s a crazy number. It ties the all time Bridgeport record while breaking the record at Windsor Locks.

103&#176 should be enough to keep everyone happy. It is not!

Any day of extremes finds me inundated with extra extreme readings from viewers!

One Facebook friend posted her 110&#176 from a beachside town near New Haven. I’m guessing she read 12-15 degrees hotter than the actual temperature at the time.

I don’t mean to pick on that one person. Like I said, “inundated.”

She wasn’t exaggerating. That’s what her thermometer said. It was wrong!

This becomes a real problem because the last thing I want to do is diss people. On the other hand my info has got to be reasonably accurate to be useful.

On TV we show “air temperature.” That means the thermometer has to be affected only by air and not its surroundings. “Official” readings are taken away from buildings and over grassy surfaces. The thermometer is in a white louvered housing so sunlight is reflected away and ambient air passes through.

It’s not that I mind getting the home observations. It’s that I don’t want to disappoint you by saying you’re wrong.

How Can It Get Colder Than Zero?

The problem is people regularly think 20&#176F is twice as warm as 10&#176F! Everything we’re taught about math says it should be, but it’s not.

When I went to sleep last night it was 4&#176. We ended up bottoming out at around -4&#176. It was extremely cold, though the numbers are misleading or at least overstate the case.

Sit down. I hate to tell you this. There’s really little scientific significance to 0&#176 Fahrenheit! It was just a very cold temperature which could be produced reasonably consistently with the tools available 400 years ago. It is not where temperature stops!

From Wikipedia: According to an article Fahrenheit wrote in 1724, he based his scale on two reference points of temperature. The zero point is determined by placing the thermometer in brine: he used a mixture of ice, water, and ammonium chloride, a salt. This is a frigorific mixture which automatically stabilizes its temperature at 0 °F.

The second point, 100 degrees, was the level of the liquid in the thermometer when held in the mouth or under the armpit of his wife.

The problem is people regularly think 20&#176F is twice as warm as 10&#176F! Everything we’re taught about math says it should be, but it’s not.

There is an absolute point where the downward scale of temperature stops. It’s called “absolute zero” and it corresponds to -459.67&#176 Fahrenheit, -273.15&#176 Centigrade or 0&#176 Kelvin. At that temperature all molecular motion ceases!

Absolute zero doesn’t naturally exist though scientists have managed to approach it. They’ve never reached it. It’s possible they never will.

Last night we weren’t even close!

Your Thermometer Is Lying

It’s not that the thermometers aren’t accurate they’re just placed in locations where a legitimate reading is impossible.

Make no mistake, it was hot today in Connecticut. On-the-air I joked how most of Connecticut was hotter than Palm Springs and Las Vegas. That’s pretty strange for July.

Often I’ll get photos from people showing their thermometers and reading well beyond what I’ve shown on TV. The photo with this post comes from my car’s ‘carmometer.’

The thermometers are lying! It’s not that the thermometers aren’t accurate they’re just placed in locations where a legitimate reading is impossible.

There are rules to follow before a reading can be believed. Official temperatures are air temperatures and are taken away from buildings, out of the sunshine in a white, louvered shelter and over a grassy surface.

My car’s thermometer is over blazing black asphalt. Backyard thermometers often pick up direct sunlight or just some reflection. They’re usually near a house… often one with a heat spewing air conditioning compressor nearby.

Unless I stick with the real deal I’m compared apples and oranges. That’s a bad idea.

Accept no substitutes. I don’t

I Always Worry

I don’t have the stats, but I instinctively feel they’re older long time residents of neighborhoods that have changed around them. Their windows are closed and locked–maybe sealed shut.

I was interviewed by a reporter from the New Haven Register this afternoon. We were talking about Tuesday’s anticipated temperatures. The forecast has been reasonably consistent since last week with high temperatures and dew points.

For most people this will just be a briefly uncomfortable day. Flip the switch. Turn on the a/c. Worry not. Most of us are insulated from the ravages of weather extremes. Modern science has been kind to us.

Then there are the people who live in isolation often in homes/apartments sealed tight as can be. I don’t have the stats, but I instinctively feel they’re older long time residents of neighborhoods that have changed around them. Their windows are closed and locked–maybe nailed shut.

Warranted or not crime is a bigger fear than heat.

They will be very hot tomorrow. It will be dangerously hot. Some of these people are isolated from the rest of society. There’s no one to check and make sure they’re OK. There’s no one who cares.

Tonight I will sound like a nervous Nellie, but my admonitions probably won’t be for you. I’m talking to these people living out-of-sight.

I always worry.