Friday, July 22, 2016

Nocturnal Corn Sweats And the U.S. Heat Wave

Years ago I was corresponding with a reader in Kansas:
On Jun 4, 2008, at 9:06 PM, Climateer wrote:
...pps- Have you ever heard of Nocturnal Corn Sweats?
It's supposed to be one of the reasons for higher humidity.
98% sucks.
That's a technical term that all the best weather geeks use
She responded
nocturnal corn sweats!! no! never heard of them. I just fell of my chair I laughed so hard. Really? Seriously? I'm googling it to make sure you aren't pulling my leg.
Compared to last year, almost no one (along my drive into town, anyway) planted corn this year. which is good because it has been horribly, horribly wet at all the wrong times. lots of wheat though...
Over the next couple years I got a bit obsessed:
Nocturnal Corn Sweat News!
6/11/10 Climateer wrote
If you Google "nocturnal corn sweat" (or sweats) it still comes back 'No Results Found'.
Damn it.

I shall make it my mission to bring the term into common usage,
From every village and hamlet to the great metropoli, when some says "NCS" it won't be the National Cartoonist Society they refer to.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression...

Good grief, I'm channeling MLK.
Here's the latest from Northern Illinois University via the Elgin Courier-News:...
I even tried remembering high school biology. She asked:
 8/4/10  Can soybeans get night sweats too? Was out two mornings around dawn and soybe...
8/4/10 Climateer wrote

...It's all about the pores.
Corn is one of the weird C4's, I've forgotten which group/subgroup soybeans are in.
And the CAM's, ah the CAM plants.

Nocturnal Bean Sweats...hmmmm
Some people laughed back then but they aren't laughing now:
Washington Post, July 18

St. Louis Public Radio, July 20
 
DesMoines Register, July 21

Murray State University, July 19

My work here is done.
See also: