Several times this week, someone mentioned to me that this has been an unusual summer. When I asked what was unusual, the other person mentioned "cool weather."
Without checking the statistics, I agreed. I remember a large number of mornings since mid-July when temperatures were in the lower 60s -- and, in a few cases, even the upper 50s. The low temperature Wednesday morning at Charlotte Douglas International Airport was 57, just 2 degrees off the record for the date.
Temperatures are a few degrees below average in August and were a bit below average in July.
But the numbers tell a different story. I defined "cool mornings" as days when the low was less than 65 degrees. In mid-summer, Charlotte's average daily low is almost 70 degrees.
By that measure, August 2014 has been pretty much the same as the last three years. July 2014 was definitely cooler, though.
Here's a look at the numbers in Charlotte, through Wednesday:
AUGUST
Cooler than 65 degrees in 2014: 5 days (4 more had a low of 65).
2013: 6 days (2 more were 65)
2012: 9 days (3 more were 65)
2011: 7 days (3 more were 65)
2010: 2 days
JULY
2014: 6 days (2 more were 65)
2013: 0
2012: 0
2011: 2 days (1 more was 65)
2010: 4 days, including 2 in the 50s (1 more was 65)
Weather records show that Charlotte usually gets a stretch of several days in August, usually near the end of the month, when cooler temperatures seep southward and lows are in the low 60s. That doesn't usually happen in July, however.
All things considered, this has been an ordinary summer in the Carolinas, with a stretch of wet and rather unpleasant weekends in late July and early August.
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Has this been a cool summer?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
6 comments:
watch out ...the climate "change" police will be coming to your door if you don't agree
It's been a cool summer. Period. August is always a hot, miserable month. This year, August has been nice.
August has been wonderful! Only a few hot days.
Counting only the coolness of mornings without regard to the coolness of days can result in a distorted analysis.
Nice???? WTH????????
Again, it depends on how you define cool. What I always hear from weather guys is that the one and only measure of cool vs hot is number of 90-degree days. If there haven't been many of them, they rave about how unseasonably cool it has been.
I know you have to draw the line somewhere, but I think a better measure is dewpoint. For example, if there were only a dozen or so 90-degree days, but the dewpoint was at least 65 for 3 solid months, I would very loudly protest any characterization of the summer as "cool."
That has been the case this summer. It hasn't gone above 90 degrees very often, but it has been stupid humid since the middle of May, with the exception of those cool monrings mentioned above. The refrigerator and AC units have been running full blast for 4 months. This has not been a "cool" summer. I have the electric bills to prove it.
Hot and muggy with continuous threat of violent severe storm every d--n day. Nasty summer. It cannot end soon enough.
Post a Comment