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What's the humidity like? What's the big deal about wind?
In SC it isn't the heat - or the cold - that kills you, but the humidity. Humidity that, in the summertime, takes the 'feels like' temps up 15 degrees, and makes you feel as though you are trying to breathe underwater. In the winter, it makes the cold sink right into your bones.
I have spent winters in TX, NM, ID, and all of those, though cold, were not as piercingly cold as places where the humidity never drops below 65%, and usually hangs around 90%.
In NM we used to get really intense wind and sandstorms, sometimes lasting several days. I've noticed many rural areas have thick shelterbelts. As Ron White says, "it's not THAT the wind is blowing, but WHAT the wind is blowing!" Are these shelterbelts to protect against not just wind but blowing snow? I read the tornado blog, and noted that even though there seems to be a lot of wind, there are not frequent tornadoes, as there are in OK and KS. What, In your Educated Opinion, is the reason for that?
Thanks! Any other insights on weather would be appreciated.
What's the humidity like? What's the big deal about wind?
In SC it isn't the heat - or the cold - that kills you, but the humidity. Humidity that, in the summertime, takes the 'feels like' temps up 15 degrees, and makes you feel as though you are trying to breathe underwater. In the winter, it makes the cold sink right into your bones.
I have spent winters in TX, NM, ID, and all of those, though cold, were not as piercingly cold as places where the humidity never drops below 65%, and usually hangs around 90%.
In NM we used to get really intense wind and sandstorms, sometimes lasting several days. I've noticed many rural areas have thick shelterbelts. As Ron White says, "it's not THAT the wind is blowing, but WHAT the wind is blowing!" Are these shelterbelts to protect against not just wind but blowing snow? I read the tornado blog, and noted that even though there seems to be a lot of wind, there are not frequent tornadoes, as there are in OK and KS. What, In your Educated Opinion, is the reason for that?
Thanks! Any other insights on weather would be appreciated.
Hi
I am working the mid shift so just saw your question this morning....I will try to answer as best I can.
First off....the percent humidity often quoted on weathercasts is really not a true representation of the moistness of the air (at least how it feels)...and this is especially in the summer. The term relative humidity is basically the difference between the air temperature and the dew point temperature (it is more complex than that but for the sake of explaining it is ok). For example...in the winter it can be zero with a dew point of zero making the humidity 100%....now it will not feel moist outside or feel like a damp cold. a dew point of zero represents a dry atmosphere. So often meteorologists like to look at the dew point temperature to get an actual feel of how humid it is.
As for the winter season....generally Nov thru March....it is significantly colder than any of the places you haved lived previously. Generally the north and east parts of the state (east of the Missouri) will have much colder temps and more days with snowcover than southwestern ND which can have wide swings in temperatures and often warmup well above freezing (32F) in any month and thus keeping the area from Bismarck to Dickinson a lot milder and less days with snowcover than the rest of the state. Also...Williston to Bismarck westward will tend to have drier airmasses and less pcpn and more high wind events than the east part of the state which is wetter. It can be windy in the east too but often time low pressure system that track through the state will give the highest winds in the "wind belt" of eastern Montana...southwest ND into western SD. The eastern part of the state and especially the northeast (Bottineau-Rugby-Carrington-Fargo northward) will be markedly colder for much longer than other parts of the state and have nearly continuous snowcover from mid Nov til late March. I cant tell you how many times I have witnessed in March the warm winds from the Rockies reach Bismarck and they go to 60 while in Grand Forks is in the 20s.
In conclusion...the temperatures in most North Dakota winter are sufficiently low so that while humidity percentages may be high the dew point temperature itself is low. So it is a mostly dry cold....you need lots of lotion and often humidifiers in the house.
In the summertime...there is a more marked difference in humidity/dew points from west to east. Bismarck to Dickinson to Williston can get into the humid airmasses but usually not stay in them for very long...while the eastern part of the state (Minot to Jamestown eastward) can have several weeks of humid weather in the summer. The worst period for humid weather is mid July to early August right at the peak of crop growth...as crops add lots of moisture to the air while maturing. In June and in later August you see more frequent cooler airmasses drop in so warm and humid weather lasts for very short periods. Rainfall and thunderstorms can be heavy at times in the summer...but certainly average rainfall is a lot less than in SC/GA.
As for winds...shelter belts were planted by farmers back after the depression as part of the plan to prevent soil erosion in the event of another huge drought. Not much to stop the wind in the country so overall wind speeds are quite higher than in SC with rarely a calm day. Grand Forks county claims to be the shelter belt capital of the world....as this area is very very flat. Trees also serve a good purpose in that in winter it helps reduce the amount of snow that can drift onto a roadway.
As for tornadoes....we can have bad ones up here....but not as many as OK/KS. Many reasons for this...namely the ingredients needed for tornado formation....high instability (high temps/high dew points/high moisture) are only present from about June through mid August (usually). This is unlike the south central Plains when these factors can be present from March til October. Another big reason is that a feature called a dryline (separating very dry air from moist air) often is located from far wrn KS into the TX panhandle in the spring and summer. This feature can surge east with an approaching storm system and combined with higher heat and moisture present in the south central plains often can act as a trigger for storm formation and possible tornadoes.
I hope this helps...but got to forgive my tired brain at 5 am
Dan - not a problem with waiting. Very laid back and mellow, me. Figured you were working.
I am a student of weather; hurricane forecasts depend a lot on dew points, air pressures, moisture levels, high and low pressures and their strengths and so forth, so what you said makes perfect sense to me, tired or not! LOL
I appreciate that you could differentiate between the different areas of the state, and why the impacts and conditions are different. As a serious organic gardener, who utilizes a greenhouse year round, even in the South, the various types of weather impacts - and reasons for the conditions - will have some bearing on where I choose to live.
Thank you for your time and attention to the detail. That was very important to me.
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