Hot Temperatures

   We've been having some hot weather here lately. As I write this, at approximately 3 p.m. on Friday July 22, the temperature is currently 100 degrees in the Joplin area, and this marks the fourth day in a row that the thermometer reading has topped out at 100 degrees or more. The weekly forecast shows the temperature continuing to reach 100 or greater each of the next five days. If that happens, we will have had nine consecutive days with temperatures of 100 or more. Plus we had three days in July prior to the current streak in which we reached at least 100. So, we might have at least twelve days this month of triple digit temperatures. That's hot, but there have been at least a couple of Julys in the Ozarks during my lifetime that were hotter.
   One of those years was 1980. The exact figures vary, depending on the source, but according to Weather Underground, Joplin had 19 consecutive days and 22 total days in July of 1980 on which the thermometer reached triple digits. It continued to be hot that summer into August and early September. I was teaching school at the time, and I recall how terribly hot it was during the first few weeks of school in late August and early September. The school I taught at did not have air conditioning at that time, and by afternoon the building was sweltering. The heat was draining on both teachers and students, and by afternoon, it was hard get much teaching and learning done.
   July 1954, when I was a little kid, was even hotter than 1980. Although the total number of days (18) and the consecutive number of days (12) of triple digit temperatures during the month were both fewer than in July 1980, the overall average temperature was hotter. That's because the very hot days in July 1954 were more extreme, with several days reaching into the one hundred and teens, and even the "cooler" days were hotter than the cool days of July 1980. Only once or twice during the entire month of July 1954 did the maximum temperature top out at less than 95, whereas there were several such days in July 1980.
   So far this July, the average daily high temperature has been 91.29 degrees in Joplin, the average daily low has been 66.44, and the overall average temperature has been 83.77. By comparison, the same figures for July 1980 were 93.86, 77.5, and 88.2, and the figures for July 1954 were 98.2, 81.63, and 89.06. As you can see, even though we are having a hot July this year, the overall average has been considerably lower than either 1980 or 1954, mainly because it has tended to cool off more in the evening this year than it did in either of the other two years. But we still have over a week of this month left, and if the forecast is correct, those average figures for 2022 could rise considerably.
   I should probably add that I don't mean to suggest, by pointing out that we have had summers in the past hotter than the current one, that the average global temperature is not rising. The scientific data says that it is. Something like 17 or 18 of hottest years on record worldwide have occurred during the past twenty years. So, I definitely believe that global warming is real; it's just a matter of how much of it is because of human activity, as opposed to the normal cycles of nature. The scientific consensus is that a considerable amount of it is due to human activity, and I tend to agree with that. It just stands to reason that putting smoke and other pollutants into the atmosphere year after year can't be good for the overall health of the planet.