Ticker for April 14, 2006

                
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April 14, 2006     April 14, 2006     April 14, 2006     April 14, 2006



Some Cool Numbers that Reflect Warmth

Some of climatology's more utilitarian indices are based on degree-days.
These tools help combine the depth and intensity of hot, cold or
in-between spells over time. They are useful in agriculture and in
estimation of energy consumption.

How do they work? Let's look at cooling degree-days (CDDs). These
represent the cumulative departure of average conditions from a
standard threshold (usually 65 F). In other words, a day with an
average temprature of 74 degrees will accumulate 9 CDDs. Two such days
amass eighteen, and so on. Very hot days and weeks pile up lots of CDDs
(they're named so because your home's climate control system will need
to cool the house down to the standard temperature).

Anyway, most of Oklahoma, in less than 14 days, has already blown away
the average number of CDDs for the month of April:

Normal CDD: 

April 2006: 


These numbers are a testament to a quite warm first two weeks of the
month. Now, even if the second half of the month balances out the first
by being much cooler than normal, those accumulated CDD units won't go
away (and neither will their accompanying cooling costs).