2024 saw the United States’ highest average dew point on record

With a nod and a wink to Progressive Insurance, talking about dew point is a strong tipoff that you are, in fact, turning into your parents. Boomers: “I miss the good old days when we complained about the relative humidity!” I feel your pain. But relative humidity is, well, relative (to the temperature). Dew point is an ABSOLUTE measure of how much water is in the air.

During Monday’s crazy heat spike I recorded a peak dew point of 82 degrees. For perspective, anything above 60 is humid and 70+ is tropical. Data shows that across the continental U.S., 2024 has the highest average dew point since 1940. I have friends in Los Angeles complaining about how sticky this year has been! Weird.

The arrival of comfortable air will set off strong to severe thunderstorms Thursday. Probably not as wild as Monday, but hail and damaging winds are possible later in the day. We clear Friday with comfortable sunshine for the Labor Day weekend. Mid-70s for highs on Monday? Sign me up. Summer ends on a sunny, pleasant note.