OK, for the last 4 weeks in the center where I bowl, the air conditioning has been busted. People sweating all over the place, swollen hands, people sticking from the heat.

My question is, how much does the temp in the center affect the pattern? We bowled on a 40 foot Kegel pattern last swing, where the temp outside was near 100 at the time we were bowling. Seemed like the oil moved MUCH faster and sooner than it usually did before on Middle Road.

Tonight, we started a 37 foot pattern, seemed similar to Viper. The oil also seemed to move very fast.

I know it's probably going to differ, depending on lane surface, and type of oil being used, and probably the oiler.

I can't wait to bowl in air conditioning again.

The first ingredient listed on my jug of lane conditioner is mineral oil so I'm not sure what you mean by water based though I do agree warmer conditions can make some conditioners and lane surfaces hookier.

Heat will help the oil disappear faster. Some of it is due to the extra friction caused by the heat, and some of it will simply evaporate.  Most (if not all) of today's lane conditioners are water based. 

That would explain my ball having water on it when it came back in the return...  I saw the oil rings but I also felt water on the dang thing...

It messes with a person. When you don't expect the pattern to really change every 3 shots, then making the wrong adjustment (My fault, totally), plus it being so hot that you're sweating before you start bowling (Uncommon for me, totally) is totally wrong.

Pike, next week, if they don't have the air fixed, I'm stealing one of those big fans and putting it on our pair. No lie.

My biggest problem with the heat was getting the ball off my hand clean.
Nothing worse than having a sweaty hand after the second frame in the first game, or you thumb has already swelled up like you have bowled 5 games.

That AC better be fixed next week.

I would refuse to bowl under those conditions. That is not what you pay for!!!!

In addition to heat/humidity and/or oil type, not all patterns are created equally:

There's a way to figure out pattern durability with a formula, that I believe was created by Joe Slowinski (but I can't find the article):

Pattern Volume / Pattern Length = Transition

In theory, the higher the transition number, the more durable the pattern.

IE:
Kegel Broadway: 23.32 / 37 = .63
Kegel Middle Road: 22.72 / 40 = .58

You would expect, all thing being equal (which they never are) that Middle Road should breakdown faster.  Obviously this doesn't account for people using charcoal or plastic to blow-up a pattern.  It also doesn't account for lane surface or for anything else.  It's just a good starting point in thinking about how quickly things could possible change.

To the original poster - Did it seem like Middle Road broke down quicker than Broadway (which is probably the 37ft pattern you bowled on)?  I'm curious.

I just bowled on Broadway for the first time this weekend and I think it held up quite well.  I only had to ball down once after 3 games of the 7 games I bowled.  Obviously, I'm lefty but I didn't see righties ball down that much either.

By far the biggest enemy of lane conditioner is high friction bowling balls.  Heat and humidity certainly don't help though.