CORPUS CHRISTI, Tx — As we all know (and can feel) this week has been oppressively hot, why is that?
Climatology wise, August 5-15 is the hottest week of the year for our area, which means that it is typical for us to have these weather conditions during this specific time frame.
But what's going on to make it this hot? A couple things actually. I'll break it down. In the upper levels of the atmosphere, high pressure has been essentially locked over the area and that promote lots of sunshine and hot temperatures.
Another factor that plays a role in how hot it feels outside is the humidity. First, let's define humidity. Humidity is based on how much moisture is in the atmosphere and that is represented by dew point values. So when our dew points are high then the more humid it is. The more humidity, the higher our heat index values, also known as our feels like temperatures.
Our feels like temperatures have consistently been around 110ºF but remain just below the threshold for heat alerts (thankfully) So while it has felt scorching we've actually had hotter feels like temperatures before. A few months ago, on June 4, we recorded the highest feels-like temperature of the year so far at 122ºF.
Now keeping all this in mind, what does all this heat mean for our lake levels?
Our lake levels have been slowly decreasing each day this week and this is due to evaporation. With our consecutively hot and sunny days, some of the water from the lakes is evaporating which is the process in which liquid turns into a gas.
We got some more heat on the way this week so be sure to follow your heat safety tips but now you know some of the reasons behind the heat this week!