NOAA: Summer Temperature Below Average for U.S.
Source here
September 10, 2009
The average June-August 2009 summer temperature for the contiguous United States was below average – the 34th coolest on record, according to a preliminary analysis by NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. August was also below the long-term average. The analysis is based on records dating back to 1895.
U.S. Temperature Highlights – Summer
High resolution (Credit: NOAA)
- For the 2009 summer, the average temperature of 71.7 degrees F was 0.4 degree F below the 20th Century average. The 2008 average summer temperature was 72.7 degrees F.
- A recurring upper level trough held the June-August temperatures down in the central states, where Michigan experienced its fifth, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and South Dakota their seventh, Nebraska its eighth, and Iowa its ninth coolest summer. By contrast, Florida had its fourth warmest summer, while Washington and Texas experienced their eighth and ninth warmest, respectively.
- The Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota region experienced its sixth coolest summer on record. Only the Northwest averaged above normal temperatures.
U.S. Temperature Highlights – August
High resolution (Credit: NOAA)
- The average 2009 August temperature of 72.2 degrees F was 0.6 degree F below the 20th Century average. Last year’s August temperature was 73.2 degrees F.
- Temperatures were below normal in the Midwest, Plains, and parts of the south. Above-normal temperatures dominated the eastern seaboard, areas in the southwest, and in the extreme northwest.
- Several northeastern states were much above normal for August, including Delaware and New Jersey (eighth warmest), Maine (ninth), and Rhode Island and Connecticut (10th). In contrast, below-normal temperatures were recorded for Missouri and Kansas.
U.S. Precipitation Highlights – Summer
High resolution (Credit: NOAA)
- The Northeast region had its eighth wettest June-August summer on record. By contrast, the South, Southeast and Southwest regions, were drier than average. Arizona had its third driest summer, while both South Carolina and Georgia had their sixth driest.
U.S. Precipitation Highlights – August
- In August, precipitation across the contiguous United States averaged 2.34 inches, which is 0.26 inch below the 1901-2000 average.
- Above-normal averages were generally recorded across the northern U.S., west of the Great Lakes. The South and Southeast regions experienced below-normal precipitation.
- Precipitation across the Southwest region averaged 0.85 inches, which is 1.10 inches below normal and ranks as the 4th driest August on record. Arizona had its fourth driest, New Mexico its fifth, and it was the eighth driest August on record for Colorado, Utah and Texas.
High resolution (Credit: NOAA)
- By the end of August, moderate-to-exceptional drought covered 14 percent of the contiguous United States, based on the U.S. Drought Monitor. Drought intensified in parts of the Pacific Northwest and new drought areas emerged in Arizona and the Carolinas. Montana, Wisconsin and Oklahoma saw minor improvements in their drought conditions.
- About 27 percent of the contiguous United States had moderately-to-extremely wet conditions at the end of August, according to the Palmer Index (a well-known index that measures both drought intensity and wet spell intensity).
Other Highlights
- There were more than 300 low temperature records (counting daily highs and lows) set across states in the Midwest during the last two days of August.
- A total of 7,975 fires burned 1,646,363 acres in August, according to the National Interagency Coordination Center. August 2009 ranked fifth for the number of fires and sixth for acres burned in August this decade. From January through August, 64,682 fires have burned 5.2 million acres across the nation.
NCDC’s preliminary reports, which assess the current state of the climate, are released soon after the end of each month. These analyses are based on preliminary data, which are subject to revision. Additional quality control is applied to the data when late reports are received several weeks after the end of the month and as increased scientific methods improve NCDC’s processing algorithms.
NOAA understands and predicts changes in the Earth’s environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and conserves and manages our coastal and marine resources.
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Well so much for record setting heat that some people were crowing about.
Most pleasant summer here in NC in at least a decade. No sustained “major” heat (95F+ day after day). My yard agrees. This is the best it’s looked this late in the season….ever.
Record cool? Yeah, thanks NOAA for letting me know…I don’t think I’d have noticed otherwise :,(.
The Midwest got a BBQ summer, UK Met style. But it’s only weather. Call me when it’s hot THEN we can talk about climate.
I hope there is a study linking global temperature and agricultural productivity which will tell everyone that global warming is to be celebrated, not feared.
Florida, as can be seen from the map, had a hot summer. Bad luck for us. And I do mean luck because these things are unpredictable, random things.
I’m to young to remember the earlier, hotter summers though.
GISS is out with August: +0.51°C
In case there’s anyone who still cares.
Fire those people inmediately, i don’t wanna them to be one more second here!
I spoke to a seed salesman over coffee in my small town’s cafe. He complained about the lack of heat to mature the corn. He also complained about farmers who bought into the “climate change myth” in a big way. These people anticipated being able to grow 110, 105 and 100 day corn in Southern Minnesota.
Now they are sore at the seed companies who trumpeted “the new climate”.
This year these farmers get burned by ‘global warming’, which is nuts because they did last year too. They should have learned their lesson.
Trying to artificially extending the growing season results in additional costs to dry the corn for sale and storage.
From the British MetOffice
Summer forecast 2009
Tue 31 Mar 2009
Temperature
For the UK and much of Western Europe temperatures are likely to be near average
Rainfall
At this stage forecast signals are too weak to provide an outlook for summer rainfall.
Thursday 30 Mar 2009
Temperature
For the UK and much of Europe temperatures are likely to be above average.
Rainfall
For the UK and much of northern Europe rainfall is likely to be near or below average. A repeat of the wet summers of 2007 and 2008 is unlikely.
Average or below-average rainfall is also likely over Eastern Europe
Thursday 30 May 2009
Temperature
For the UK and much of Europe temperatures are likely to be above average
Rainfall
For the UK and much of western Europe rainfall is likely to be near or below average. A repeat of the very wet summers of 2007 and 2008 is unlikely.
Below-average rainfall is likely over eastern Europe.
Thursday 30 June 2009
Temperature
For the UK and much of Europe temperatures for the rest of the summer are likely to be above average
Rainfall
For the rest of summer, rainfall is likely to be near average over the UK. A repeat of the very wet summers of 2007 and 2008 remains unlikely.
Over other parts of western Europe rainfall is likely to be near average or above average, while below-average rainfall is favoured over much of eastern Europe.
Wednesday 29 July 2009
Temperature
For the UK and much of northern Europe temperatures for the rest of the summer are likely to be near or above average.
Rainfall
For the rest of summer, rainfall is likely to be near or above average over the UK and much of northern Europe.
This is not news in Minnesota. . .the acorns started hitting the ground in huge numbers in early August. The Nordic heritage types around here are going around mutting “fimbul winter coming”.
Try again
Summer forecast 2009
Tue 31 Mar 2009
Temperature
For the UK and much of Western Europe temperatures are likely to be near average
Rainfall
At this stage forecast signals are too weak to provide an outlook for summer rainfall.
Thursday 30 May 2009
Temperature
For the UK and much of Europe temperatures are likely to be above average
Rainfall
For the UK and much of western Europe rainfall is likely to be near or below average. A repeat of the very wet summers of 2007 and 2008 is unlikely.
Below-average rainfall is likely over eastern Europe.
Thursday 30 June 2009
Temperature
For the UK and much of Europe temperatures for the rest of the summer are likely to be above average
Rainfall
For the rest of summer, rainfall is likely to be near average over the UK. A repeat of the very wet summers of 2007 and 2008 remains unlikely.
Over other parts of western Europe rainfall is likely to be near average or above average, while below-average rainfall is favoured over much of eastern Europe.
Wednesday 29 July 2009
Temperature
For the UK and much of northern Europe temperatures for the rest of the summer are likely to be near or above average.
Rainfall
For the rest of summer, rainfall is likely to be near or above average over the UK and much of northern Europe.
Boy, that map would be a lot more useful if it was at the county level. Look at Oklahoma and Texas, for instance. 53 vs 107? That just doesn’t parse unless the Texas heat wave was pretty much along the gulf coast. Which Florida might suggest, but then you look at Mississippi and Alabama. . .
Funny, the Chicago Tribune yesterday warned that we will see dire hot spells every year in the future EVEN if we do cap-and-trade…
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-illinois-global-warming-10-sep10,0,4857972.story
In my weather office, we called half-jokeningly called that trof the “Semi-permanment Low Pressure system” located over the Hudson Bay.
It just seemed like it never moved.
Interesting…While this is *strictly* anecdotal, our ‘Above Normal’ summer in Sacramento resulted in ‘below normal’ tomato production (at least for us, our neighbors, and many of the vendors at the local farmers markets)–which is the opposite of what we’d expect.
I’d be willing to bet the strictly rural, well-sited temperature records (outside of UHI and/or other site biases) locally would show below normal. Anthony, is there an easy way to do that analysis?
Sorry to hear that in-land North American people had a bad summer, on the west coast we certainly had one of the best… in that sense we love global cooling on the west coast. And considering the city island effect on the sensors, it must have been even colder that what they report.
I suspect a survey of Northern Hemisphere home tomato growers would tell us how hot the tomatoes think it’s been.
If GISS says an area had a hot summer but the tomatoes don’t then I’m with the tomatoes.
Cannot help but notice that in California, even the Pacific Northwest, the hottest summers do not have above average rainfall, as that plows out the dominant High Pressure ridge and keeps out the sun.
Averages fall.
Ergo, the area suffers from lack of resolution as well as poorly located sensors.
One of the arguments I often put forward regarding *why* Americans use so much electricity is to simply show them the local newspapers national temperature topograph (or whatever it’s called). The USA Today one works just as well. 300 million Americans trying to maintain the same temperature that the Europeans most often enjoy naturally.
Unfortunately, this year, it doesn’t have as much impact…a lot of red tends to make people say “Danger, Will Robinson, Danger!”. This year, it’s “what’s your point?” However, electrical consumption *is* down this year by a significant amount. Attributable to what? The economy? Cooler weather? Both?
Ray (11:16:56) :
It surely was one of the best for a cool summer on and anywhere near the West Coast. The tomatoes agree too.
Central MN had 2 days in 90s, average is 12. My prediction for corn crop seems in trouble; thought it’d be >10% down but should be average barring(Heaven forbid) calamity. 6 plus inches of rain in August(?!!!) saved the crop.
Hear reports from others signs are for cold winter: birds departing early, leaves changing early, etc. Cannot confirm or deny.
Washington State started out with a cool spring, but as soon as the summer-long high-pressure ridge parked itself over us, it warmed up. However only the coastal regions reported record highs. Inland temperatures were not exceptionally very high, but inland humidity was higher than normal. Anyway, it was a good summer for tomatoes – several hundred pounds from 20 plants.
Well, my tomatos here in the Hudson Valley, at least the handful of tomatos that vine ripened, tell me its been a pretty cold summer. My peppers.. well at least my pepper plants… of which most of which have not borne anything, agree. That said, cabbage and lettuce has done splendid all summer! This added to the fact that this was the first summer ever that I did not water my garden at all.. I mean at all, not even once, and to be honest it never even got close to needing it.
Funny enough, California had average temperatures like 1960-1990 and slightly above average rainfall. How can that be, those mega fires caused by AGW?