August Weather at Isbell Field Alabama, United StatesDaily high temperatures decrease by 2°F, from 88°F to 86°F, rarely falling below 79°F or exceeding 95°F. Daily low temperatures decrease by 2°F, from 67°F to 65°F, rarely falling below 58°F or exceeding 71°F. For reference, on July 22, the hottest day of the year, temperatures at Isbell Field typically range from 67°F to 88°F, while on January 29, the coldest day of the year, they range from 31°F to 51°F. The figure below shows you a compact characterization of the hourly average temperatures for the quarter of the year centered on August. The horizontal axis is the day, the vertical axis is the hour of the day, and the color is the average temperature for that hour and day. Midelt, Morocco (4,531 miles away); Ballobar, Spain (4,508 miles); and Luoqiao, China (7,934 miles) are the far-away foreign places with temperatures most similar to Isbell Field (view comparison). CloudsThe month of August at Isbell Field experiences essentially constant cloud cover, with the percentage of time that the sky is overcast or mostly cloudy remaining about 36% throughout the month. The clearest day of the month is August 13, with clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy conditions 66% of the time. For reference, on January 4, the cloudiest day of the year, the chance of overcast or mostly cloudy conditions is 56%, while on September 19, the clearest day of the year, the chance of clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy skies is 67%. PrecipitationA wet day is one with at least 0.04 inches of liquid or liquid-equivalent precipitation. At Isbell Field, the chance of a wet day over the course of August is very rapidly decreasing, starting the month at 37% and ending it at 27%. For reference, the year's highest daily chance of a wet day is 43% on July 8, and its lowest chance is 21% on October 14. RainfallTo show variation within the month and not just the monthly total, we show the rainfall accumulated over a sliding 31-day period centered around each day. The average sliding 31-day rainfall during August at Isbell Field is essentially constant, remaining about 2.8 inches throughout, and rarely exceeding 5.6 inches or falling below 0.9 inches. The lowest average 31-day accumulation is 2.7 inches on August 21. SunOver the course of August at Isbell Field, the length of the day is decreasing. From the start to the end of the month, the length of the day decreases by 56 minutes, implying an average daily decrease of 1 minute, 53 seconds, and weekly decrease of 13 minutes, 10 seconds. The shortest day of the month is August 31, with 12 hours, 54 minutes of daylight and the longest day is August 1, with 13 hours, 50 minutes of daylight. The earliest sunrise of the month at Isbell Field is 5:53 AM on August 1 and the latest sunrise is 22 minutes later at 6:15 AM on August 31. The latest sunset is 7:44 PM on August 1 and the earliest sunset is 34 minutes earlier at 7:09 PM on August 31. Daylight saving time is observed at Isbell Field during 2024, but it neither starts nor ends during August, so the entire month is in standard time. For reference, on June 20, the longest day of the year, the Sun rises at 5:30 AM and sets 14 hours, 28 minutes later, at 7:58 PM, while on December 21, the shortest day of the year, it rises at 6:45 AM and sets 9 hours, 51 minutes later, at 4:36 PM. The figure below presents a compact representation of the sun's elevation (the angle of the sun above the horizon) and azimuth (its compass bearing) for every hour of every day in the reporting period. The horizontal axis is the day of the year and the vertical axis is the hour of the day. For a given day and hour of that day, the background color indicates the azimuth of the sun at that moment. The black isolines are contours of constant solar elevation. MoonThe figure below presents a compact representation of key lunar data for August 2024. The horizontal axis is the day, the vertical axis is the hour of the day, and the colored areas indicate when the moon is above the horizon. The vertical gray bars (new Moons) and blue bars (full Moons) indicate key Moon phases. The label associated with each bar indicates the date and time that the phase is obtained, and the companion time labels indicate the rise and set times of the Moon for the nearest time interval in which the moon is above the horizon.
HumidityWe base the humidity comfort level on the dew point, as it determines whether perspiration will evaporate from the skin, thereby cooling the body. Lower dew points feel drier and higher dew points feel more humid. Unlike temperature, which typically varies significantly between night and day, dew point tends to change more slowly, so while the temperature may drop at night, a muggy day is typically followed by a muggy night. The chance that a given day will be muggy at Isbell Field is very rapidly decreasing during August, falling from 76% to 53% over the course of the month. For reference, on July 23, the muggiest day of the year, there are muggy conditions 79% of the time, while on February 25, the least muggy day of the year, there are muggy conditions 0% of the time. WindThis section discusses the wide-area hourly average wind vector (speed and direction) at 10 meters above the ground. The wind experienced at any given location is highly dependent on local topography and other factors, and instantaneous wind speed and direction vary more widely than hourly averages. The average hourly wind speed at Isbell Field is essentially constant during August, remaining within 0.1 miles per hour of 3.4 miles per hour throughout. For reference, on February 26, the windiest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 5.6 miles per hour, while on July 31, the calmest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 3.3 miles per hour. The lowest daily average wind speed during August is 3.3 miles per hour on August 3. The wind direction at Isbell Field during August is predominantly out of the west from August 1 to August 8, the north from August 8 to August 18, and the east from August 18 to August 31. Growing SeasonDefinitions of the growing season vary throughout the world, but for the purposes of this report, we define it as the longest continuous period of non-freezing temperatures (≥ 32°F) in the year (the calendar year in the Northern Hemisphere, or from July 1 until June 30 in the Southern Hemisphere). The growing season at Isbell Field typically lasts for 6.5 months (200 days), from around April 10 to around October 27, rarely starting before March 21 or after April 28, and rarely ending before October 8 or after November 15. The month of August at Isbell Field is reliably fully within the growing season. Growing degree days are a measure of yearly heat accumulation used to predict plant and animal development, and defined as the integral of warmth above a base temperature, discarding any excess above a maximum temperature. In this report, we use a base of 50°F and a cap of 86°F. The average accumulated growing degree days at Isbell Field are rapidly increasing during August, increasing by 749°F, from 2,574°F to 3,323°F, over the course of the month. Solar EnergyThis section discusses the total daily incident shortwave solar energy reaching the surface of the ground over a wide area, taking full account of seasonal variations in the length of the day, the elevation of the Sun above the horizon, and absorption by clouds and other atmospheric constituents. Shortwave radiation includes visible light and ultraviolet radiation. The average daily incident shortwave solar energy at Isbell Field is gradually decreasing during August, falling by 0.6 kWh, from 6.4 kWh to 5.8 kWh, over the course of the month. TopographyFor the purposes of this report, the geographical coordinates of Isbell Field are 34.473 deg latitude, -85.720 deg longitude, and 879 ft elevation. The topography within 2 miles of Isbell Field contains significant variations in elevation, with a maximum elevation change of 577 feet and an average elevation above sea level of 957 feet. Within 10 miles contains significant variations in elevation (1,152 feet). Within 50 miles also contains very significant variations in elevation (1,870 feet). The area within 2 miles of Isbell Field is covered by trees (47%), cropland (29%), and artificial surfaces (24%), within 10 miles by trees (49%) and cropland (48%), and within 50 miles by trees (61%) and cropland (31%). Data SourcesThis report illustrates the typical weather at Isbell Field, based on a statistical analysis of historical hourly weather reports and model reconstructions from January 1, 1980 to December 31, 2016. Temperature and Dew PointIsbell Field has a weather station that reported reliably enough during the analysis period that we have included it in our network. When available, historical temperature and dew point measurements are taken directly from this weather station. These records are obtained from NOAA's Integrated Surface Hourly data set, falling back on ICAO METAR records as required. In the case of missing or erroneous measurements from this station, we fall back on records from nearby stations, adjusted according to typical seasonal and diurnal intra-station differences. For a given day of the year and hour of the day, the fallback station is selected to minimize the prediction error over the years for which there are measurements for both stations. The stations on which we may fall back include but are not limited to Scottsboro Municipal Airport Word Field; Richard B Russell Airport; Albertville, Albertville Municipal Airport; Northeast Alabama Regional Airport; Lovell Field; Dalton Municipal Airport; Anniston Metropolitan Airport; and Huntsville Airport North. Other DataAll data relating to the Sun's position (e.g., sunrise and sunset) are computed using astronomical formulas from the book, Astronomical Algorithms 2nd Edition , by Jean Meeus. All other weather data, including cloud cover, precipitation, wind speed and direction, and solar flux, come from NASA's MERRA-2 Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis . This reanalysis combines a variety of wide-area measurements in a state-of-the-art global meteorological model to reconstruct the hourly history of weather throughout the world on a 50-kilometer grid. Land Use data comes from the Global Land Cover SHARE database , published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Elevation data comes from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) , published by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Names, locations, and time zones of places and some airports come from the GeoNames Geographical Database . Time zones for airports and weather stations are provided by AskGeo.com . Maps are © OpenStreetMap contributors. DisclaimerThe information on this site is provided as is, without any assurances as to its accuracy or suitability for any purpose. Weather data is prone to errors, outages, and other defects. We assume no responsibility for any decisions made on the basis of the content presented on this site. We draw particular cautious attention to our reliance on the MERRA-2 model-based reconstructions for a number of important data series. While having the tremendous advantages of temporal and spatial completeness, these reconstructions: (1) are based on computer models that may have model-based errors, (2) are coarsely sampled on a 50 km grid and are therefore unable to reconstruct the local variations of many microclimates, and (3) have particular difficulty with the weather in some coastal areas, especially small islands. 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