BLUF: It Is Hot Here

I thought it was time for a weather related post. Sufficient time has passed since SGT Hanseling and SSG Johnson both posted essentially the same entry on the same day. Well, the BLUF (bottom line up front, a new acronym I just learned this week) is that it is hot here. SPC Burnham is a meteorology student at UNL, and dropped big bucks on his own weather station. It is up on the roof of the JDOC and provides us with up to minute info on the weather here. It is sophisticated enough that it measures the actual ambient temp and is therefore much more accurate than the common thermometer.

We had 2 notable weather events this week. We hit a high of 117 this week according to the "Burnometer." What I think is strangest about the weather here is not necessarily the highs that we get, but how quick it gets hot and how long it stays hot. The average day it gets to a low of 85 which is around 0600. When I get up to take a shower it actually feels cool outside. Most days by 1000 it is over 100. The high seems to come around 1500 and 1600. Now, the day it hit 117, it was still 115.9 at 1900. It usually doesn't dip back under 100 until after midnight. So, there is pretty much no escaping the heat and the so-called oven effect. Also, there isn't the breaks in temp like we have back at home. I can't remember a day when it has been below 110, most days it hits 112-115.

The other weather related event was that I also woke up this morning to see a sight that I hadn't witnessed since probably early April. Clouds!!! All across the sky, it was fantastic. Burnham informed me that they are alto-cumulus clouds. Not sure what it means, but it sure sounds cool. They are a welcome change of pace from the hot, sunny, and windy climate we have become accustomed to here in Iraq.

SPC Burnham on the way up to the roof to place his weather station.
The weather station itself.