Dear Tom,
My son says that the dew point has never gone above 80(degrees), but I disagree. Is he correct?
Thanks, Ed
Dear Ed,
Chalk one up for dad on this debate. Though rare, dew points in Chicago have topped 80(degrees) on a few occasions with the highest value here a steamy 83(degrees) recorded on July 30, 1999. However, dew points of 80(degrees)+ are common during the summer months along the Gulf of Mexico, and occur with regularity in the Southeast. The world?s highest dew points are found in tropical areas, in close proximity to bodies of water with high surface temperature like the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. The city of Assab, Eritrea, on the Red Sea coast has an average dew point of 84(degrees) in June. A world-record 95(degrees) dew point was recorded at Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, on July 8, 2003, a suffocating afternoon when the mercury reached 108(degrees), resulting in a heat index of 174(degrees). ———-
Tom Skilling is chief meteorologist at WGN-TV. His forecasts can be seen Monday through Friday on WGN-TV News at noon and 9 p.m.
WGN-TV meteorologists Steve Kahn, Richard Koeneman and Paul Dailey plus weather producer Bill Snyder contribute to this page.
