So I have updated the average number of 90 degree days to include the Philadelphia International Airport and overlaid that analysis over the Chester County data shared yesterday. You can clearly see the impact of the urban heat island (UHI) on the official Philadelphia climate site (the red line is the rapid heat growth). While 90 degrees are declining in Chester County they are rapidly increasing in frequency at the airport. So far in the 2020's PHL is averaging more than 3 weeks of additional 90+ days than here in Chester County.
In 1940 when weather observations started at the airport it's footprint was only around 300 acres. Since 1940 the PHL Airport has expanded to over 2,600 acres. That is a staggering 2,078% growth. The significant impact to the official Philadelphia climate data due to this rapid expansion is clearly illustrated below.
Especially starting in 1970 when we began to see huge increases in the addition of asphalt, concrete and taxi ways. In 1970 alone the airport added 64% more gates and buildings. Just 2 years later in 1972 runways were expanded to handle 747's. Then 4 new terminals were added in 1977 and parking spaces were increased from 5k to 20k. Rapid increase in asphalt continued in 2002 with an additional 8 miles of pavement added to the site. In 2005 runways were increased and as of today there is now 33,000 feet of asphalt runway at the airport. Next time you see the reporting of 90 degree days on TV.....keep in mind where those figures are coming from - it is not where people live.
Well we had storms earlier this morning, but they lost some severity as they went into Kentucky around 3am. Got some outflow gusts (and a bunch of scud clouds moving through us!) but lightning wasn't that frequent.
Last night around 10pm there was a small tornado warned cell in Greenup County, I heard their siren going off for 15 minutes.
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