PARKERSBURG - In Parkersburg, the summer of 2010 is tied with four other years as the ninth warmest summer on record, according to the National Weather Service in Charleston.
With an average temperature of 75.2 degrees- weather service officials calculate average summer temperatures by averaging the sum of the daytime high and low temperatures for each day from June 1 through Aug. 31- the past summer ties with 1899, 1919, 1944 and 1952 as the ninth warmest in Parkersburg.
Local businesses and organizations reported measurable impacts on their programs or services this year from the hot weather.
Mick Graham, a spokesman with Ice House Inc. in Parkersburg, said the past summer was extremely busy for the ice producer.
"We ran 24 hours a day, seven days a week all summer. We never shut down and there were a few times we were out of ice," he said Friday, adding the level of activity experienced this summer was the highest the business had seen in several years.
Tim Hanlon, owner of Grogg's Heating and Air Conditioning Inc., said his business has been "extremely busy" over the summer, with service calls up about 40 percent over the summer of 2009. There were many after-hour calls, with Grogg technicians working through the night in some cases to restore air conditioning service to residential and commercial customers.
Hanlon also saw an increase in A/C sales this summer. He attributed that increase to the heat and to a federal stimulus program offering tax credits on new residential A/C purchases. That program will continue through the end of the year.
"I've owned this business since 1996 and this is without a doubt the busiest summer I can remember," he said Friday.
Mark Nitoski, a spokesman for Allegheny Energy, said when a summer is hot, it translates to more electrical usage.
Allegheny saw more usage this year but any comparisons to the previous year are not quite illustrative because 2009 was a cooler-than-average summer to a degree, just as this year has been slightly warmer than average, he said. He didn't immediately have access to older records.
In June, it was 61 percent warmer than the same month in 2009 while July 2010 was 117 percent warmer than July 2009, he said.
"It's been a hot summer, anybody can tell you that," Nitoski said.
Allegheny's peak day of usage over the past several years was Aug. 7, 2006, with 8,734 megawatts of electricity generated and used, Nitoski said. This summer saw a few days that reached 8,000-plus megawatts- which defines a high usage day- but none which reached that four-year-old peak, he said.
Greg Smith, spokesman for Camden-Clark Memorial Hospital, said CCMH used this summer to focus on raising awareness about heat-related illnesses to better educate patients to seek information from their pharmacists and physicians regarding their medications and any effects they might have regarding heat susceptibility.
With heat-related issues, CCMH saw a slight increase in the number of people presenting at the hospital with those issues.
J.J. Barrett, agriculture agent for the WVU Extension Service in Parkersburg, said the summer has been an "excellent year" for agricultural crops like hay, corn and vegetables in the Mid-Ohio Valley.
Other farming areas have not been as fortunate. Alex Allen, with Arnold Farms in McConnelsville, was selling fresh produce Friday at the Farmers' Market in downtown Parkersburg. Allen said the farm has been seeing smaller vegetables and crops aren't lasting as long in the field and have died off sooner.
According to the NWS, the normal summer temperature for Parkersburg is 72.9 degrees. The top 10 hottest average temperatures for Parkersburg were:
- First: 76.8 degrees; 1934
- Second: 76.2 degrees; 1936
- Third: 75.9 degrees; 1900, 1949
- Fourth: 75.8 degrees; 1901, 1943
- Fifth: 75.6 degrees; 1995, 1999
- Sixth: 75.5 degrees; 1911, 2006
- Seventh: 75.4 degrees; 1898
- Eighth: 75.3 degrees; 1921, 1931, 1969
- Ninth: 75.2 degrees; 1899, 1919, 1944, 1952, 2010
- Tenth: 75.1 degrees: 1938, 1987, 2002.
