"Summery"... as in a look back at the summer!

Written by: Bob Metcalfe

It saddens me to say that summer is pretty much now in the bag. Now today (Sept. 14) was a bit unusual with temperatures creeping into the mid 80's, but consistently warm weather has come and gone. So without further adieu, I'd like to summarize the summer stats (say that 10 times fast!) by the numbers:

90+ degree days: Officially 7 at the airport this year. We had 3 in June, 3 in July, none in August, and one as recently as September 5. This is about average, as we typically see anywhere from six to ten 90 degree days in our area each summer.

June: A sizzling July by historical standards, as our average temperature was 69.8 degrees for the month. That is a 4.0 degree difference ABOVE NORMAL, which is quite a difference. The 9th of the month featured the hottest day of the year at 93 degrees, which was only matched one more time, almost a month later on July 9th. We had 2.59" of rain, which was 0.77 inches less than the average, meaning it was slightly drier. The most rain we received in 24 hours was 0.59" on the 15-16.

July: Another above average month, but not nearly as pronounced as June, with an average temperature of 72.0 degrees, 1.3 degrees above average. Another three 90+ degree days. We received 3.91" of rain, putting us almost 1" above average (0.98" to be exact.) Our biggest 24 hour rainfall: 1.35" on the 22-23.

August: Below average in almost every category. No 90 degree days reported... a relatively rare feat to accomplish. It was a cooler than average month, with 67.6 degrees our average temperature, 1.3 degrees below normal. Monthly precip added up to 2.97", which is 0.57" below the normal. Greatest 24 hour rainfall was on the 5th with 1.07" falling.

Fastest winds: June: 39 mph gust. July: 41 mph gust. August: 31 mph gust. Our strongest wind actually came on April 1st (no fooling!) at 55 mph. I guess the airport never took a direct hit from our worst storms of the summer!