Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, July 10, 1993                   TAG: 9307120223
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ED SHAMY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

AND JUST HOW HOT IS IT, REALLY? YOU HAD TO ASK . . .

As if you needed to know just how miserably hot it is, where do you look? And which temperature do you believe? The reading on the bank sign? The thermometer on the garage wall? The radio station? Or the hourly reading distributed by the National Weather Service from the Roanoke Regional Airport?

They can vary by 5 or 6 degrees - a critical psychological difference during a heat wave. Could they all be correct?

At the risk of sounding wishy-washy, the answer is yes. And no.

If you spend the day in full sun standing against a brick wall, you'll want to know the temperature in full sun, against a brick wall. Some of the higher readings may be taken just like that, against the wall or atop the sign at the bank, or outside the radio station.

Concrete and brick reflect heat. It's hotter in downtown Roanoke than it is, say, in a county subdivision, because the air's been given a heating boost by the surroundings. Altitude affects temperature, too. That's why it's hotter in Roanoke (950 feet above sea level) than it is in Blacksburg (about 2,200 feet above sea level).

The Roanoke Valley's official temperature is recorded near a squat, red-and-white checked building just off a runway at the airport.

As you might expect, there's a federal standard for measuring the temperature, as explained by the weather service's Harry McIntosh:

It must be measured over grass, six feet off the ground, in a ventilated area shielded from direct sun. Only that can be the official temperature, the number that's recorded for posterity.

In a shelter designed to provide those conditions, near a runway, we hit 97 official degrees on Friday. It may have been 5 or 6 cooler where you were. Or 5 or 6 degrees warmer.

\ WARMTH IN ROANOKE HISTORY

Welcome to today, likely to be the eighth consecutive day over 90 degrees.

A few Roanoke Valley records might make you feel better:

\ Most consecutive days at or above 100 degrees: five days, July 17-21, 1977.

\ Most consecutive days at or above 90 degrees: 22 days, June 23-July 14, 1966.

\ Month with the most days above 90: July 1987 - 23 days.

\ Month with the most days above 100: July 1977 - eight days.