“These are some of the highest values that a few of the reporting stations in the Kansas City metro have reported in recorded history,” said Alex Krull, a meteorologist at the weather service’s Kansas City office. But where does this extreme weather come from? And what do we know about its potential impacts? Here’s the latest on the recent heat wave and what it means for Kansas City residents. WHY HAS IT BEEN SO HOT AND HUMID? Most of the hot, muggy air in the Kansas City region comes from the Gulf of Mexico, Krull said. He added that the large high pressure system blanketing the country is centered on Kansas City. And our dew point, a metric which measures the amount of water in the air, is especially high. “If you look at other locations through the upper Midwest, they have similar air temperatures to us, but their dew point and their overall humidity is lower,” Krull said. “Therefore, they’re not necessarily seeing those elevated heat index values that we’ve been experiencing here.” The heat index is a combination of heat and humidity presented as the “feels like” temperature on your weather app.
On Tuesday afternoon, it was around 103°F at Kansas City’s downtown airport. It reached its highest point in recent weeks on Sunday around 4 pm, at 121°F. WHERE DOES THE FOG COME FROM? You may have woken up to steamy windows or noticed fog hanging over downtown Kansas City in the morning. This is caused by the air temperature lowering just enough overnight to meet the high dew point in the area, Krull said. “When the dew point temperature has been around 81°, and the overnight temperature drops to 81°, that means that the temperature has reached the point where the air can saturate (with water) and form a cloud,” he explained. “The technical definition for the dew point temperature is the temperature at which water vapor in the air would become liquid water.”
Read more at: https://www.kansascity.com/news/weather-news/article278493714.html#storylink=cpy
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