RI heading for hottest summer ever

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - If the heat has been getting to you more than usual this summer, there’s a good reason – this year is on track to be the warmest on record.

The average temperature at T.F. Green Airport has been 74.8 degrees since June 1, hotter than the record of 74.4 degrees set in 1949, according to Bill Simpson, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Taunton. The normal average is 70.4.

If the current trend continues through next month, this summer would set a new milestone as the warmest since records began in 1904, he said. (The weather service defines summer as June 1 to Aug. 30.)

Triple-digits rare

The heat wave that hit the region earlier this month already broke records. The temperature reached 102 degrees on July 6, smashing the previous record high of 97 in 1999. It was the hottest day in 19 years and the first time the high at T.F. Green had reached triple-digits since 2006.

The July 6 record came within 2 degrees of matching the hottest temperature ever recorded at T.F. Green, 104 on Aug. 2, 1975, Simpson said.

The temperature has been at least 90 degrees on seven days so far this month. The average temperature in July has been 78.2 degrees, 5.3 degrees above normal. It was 70.9 last month, 3.3 degrees above normal.

Electricity demand up

The continued warm weather is increasing demand for electricity as residents and businesses crank up their air-conditioners, said Marcia Blomberg, a spokeswoman for ISO New England, the organization that manages the region’s 8,000-mile power grid.

Compared with last summer, which was one of the coolest on record, regional power demand is up significantly this year, with a nearly 13 percent increase in June, Blomberg said. The improving economy may also be a factor, she said.

In Rhode Island, electricity consumption totaled 737 gigawatt-hours last month, up from 623 gigawatt-hours a year earlier, ISO said. (Having a 100-watt light bulb turned on for one hour equals 100 watt-hours.)

Natural gas, oil

Electricity use by New England’s 6.5 million homes and businesses reached 27,154 megawatts on July 6, the fourth-highest demand ever, according to ISO. The region has a maximum capacity of 31,950 megawatts.

New Englanders get 41 percent of their electricity by burning natural gas and another 21 percent from oil. The next-biggest source is nuclear power, at 14.5 percent.

Nearly 99 percent of the electricity generated in Rhode Island comes from gas, and the total of about 1,800 megawatts was more than enough to cover in-state demand last year. Excess power is sold on the regional wholesale market.

More heat waves

Last month was the hottest June on record worldwide, and average temperatures this year have also broken records, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The decade from 2000 to 2009 was also the warmest on record, according to NASA.

Heat waves and other extreme high-temperature events could become more frequent in the United States over the next 30 years as carbon-dioxide emissions continue to rise, according to a two-year study published this month in the scientific journal Geophysical Research Letters.

“Using a large suite of climate model experiments, we see a clear emergence of much more intense, hot conditions in the U.S. within the next three decades,” Noah Diffenbaugh, the study’s lead author and an assistant professor of environmental Earth system science at Stanford University, said in a news release.