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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“NCDC’s preliminary reports, which assess the current state of the climate…”
I thought the climate was a long term average, not three months of weather. It looks to me like the US saw its summer weather fall within the range of the last 117 years. Nothing unusual to report. Move along.
What this says to me is that, overall, the US is pretty close to average in 2009.
The SW and the Pacific Coast is warmer and drier, the northern Mid West and the NE are colder and wetter.
If you are a climate anorak and you go through the 20th century records at NCDC, you’ll find several patterns for US weather on an annual basis, which usually involve drawing a line through the country somehow, either N-S, NW – SE or NE – SW, on either side of which you get two opposing climatic trends.
There are a few of course in the early 1970s where the whole country was rather colder.
Climate modulates but this set of data says to me: ‘the US situation is entirely normal overall, although individual regions may be getting pretty uptight at the deviation from average they are experiencing right now….’
It appears that NOAA did not properly Hansenize their data and that it should be presumed unsafe for the public at large. Poorly prepared data has been shown to lead to bouts of independent, critical thinking and the myriad problems that can cause.
Andrew (11:54:53) : 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.
Here on the Left Coast too. My “cold weather type, produce even when cold” tomatoes made some, but largely sulked until August. About a large soup bowl per week. Just barely enough. (Siberian and 4th of July). The Sweet 100s gave a brief burst in the two hot weeks we had (and I’m still picking some as they ripen) but stopped setting fruit in the last couple of weeks. New green growth, but no fruit set. We’ve had a couple of warm days so I’m hoping for one last flush… nothing yet. Oh, and my one pepper plant is nice and green and has not a single fruit on it despite growing from the first planting at the start of the “summer”.
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.
I have 2 cabbages and a couple of kale / collards hybrids (personal project) that are happy as can be. The cabbages are allowed to run to seed (another project) then the bunnies get snacks (yet another project…). By this time of year, they ought to be dead and dry. They have given me 2 (!) flushes of seeds and show no signs of dying. These are “biannual” plants that ought to make seeds in the second year, then die. They seem to have decided that this spring has never ended…
Juraj V. (12:15:39) : Funny enough, California had average temperatures like 1960-1990 and slightly above average rainfall. How can that be, those mega fires caused by AGW?
Well, only “average” if you believe their graph. Frankly, I think they need to make a “de-GISSing” adjustment then they would show California as a bit blow average. (I know it is below both the 30 year and 50 year averages as I’ve lived here that whole time and it is NOT up to prior years. And my tomatoes confirm it!)
Frankly, I’m pondering a new tag line:
“GIStemp, dumber than a tomato!”
Normally, my ‘regular’ tomatoes will set fruit in late June, July, and August. Sometimes early June and September too. They set at night temps over 50F and will not set below that.
The Siberia / Siberian and similar “cold” tomatoes will set fruit into the 40F range and some claim down to 35F. This year the only ‘regular’ tomatoes to regularly set fruit are next to my “Siberian” and I suspect the Siberian pollen is surviving the cool nights to ‘do the deed’. The Sweet 100 is upwind and seems to ‘flush’ in bursts in time-delayed sync with the sporadic couple of warm weeks we’ve gotten each couple of months.
Peppers typically need a little more heat than tomatoes, and I’ve got no peppers to harvest. Finally, my Scarlet Runner Beans are beating my Kentucky Wonders. Normally it’s the other way around, with the runners getting sulky and ‘burned’ at temps over 90F or so. Runners are cool tolerant and widely grown in England for that reason. K.W. are more heat loving – as is Kentucky in general in summer.
Yes, Virginia, your garden is a natural thermometer; and correct selection of plants can give you night time lows, daytime highs, integrated degree days, etc. And Nobody can screw around with it. I trust it far FAR FAR more than I trust GIStemp, and I’ve read the GIStemp code and made it run, ported to Linux.
How about “Use The Tomato, Luke!” 😎
Just toss ’em at …
“The average June-August 2009 summer temperature for the contiguous United States was below average – the 34th coolest on record,”
Well at least they didn’t say it was the 80th warmest on record.
Canadian summer temperature report is also out from Enviornment Canada.
The national average temperature for the summer of 2009 was 0.4°C above normal, based on preliminary data, ranking it as the twenty-seventh warmest. The 2008 summer was the 3rd warmest. 1970
Warmer in West coast [3rd warmest] and Arctic Fiords and Mountains [warmest ever, 1.8 C above average ]
Cooler in inland area like St Lawrence and Great Lakes [12 th coldest]
Cold in the Prairies [6th coldest]
Cooler in Northwestern [th coldest and Northeastern forest [20 th coldest
http://www.msc-smc.ec.gc.ca/ccrm/bulletin/national_e.cfm
Canadian summer temperature report is also out from Environment Canada.
The national average temperature for the summer of 2009 was 0.4°C above normal, based on preliminary data, ranking it as the twenty-seventh warmest. The 2008 summer was the 3rd warmest. 1970 was the 28 Th warmest so we are going back in summer temperatures to the 1970,s.
Warmer in West coast [3rd warmest] and Arctic Fjords and Mountains [warmest ever, 1.8 C above average ]
Cooler in inland areas like the St Lawrence and Great Lakes [12th coldest]
Cold in the Prairies [6th coldest ,comparable to the 1950’sand 1970’s]
Cooler in Northwestern [th coldest and Northeastern forest [20 th coldest
Summary: warmer in coastal areas and the north due to the warmer ocean SST and colder inland [cooling due to negative NAO]].
http://www.msc-smc.ec.gc.ca/ccrm/bulletin/national_e.cfm
Observation in the northeast US (southern NJ): tomatos in my garden ripened, but 10 days later than usual, and suffered much from blossom-end-rot (too much moisture, not enough heat); sweet peppers – almost impossible to get fruit to set – finally developed some, but I fear they will never ripen now. Sweet corn was about a week late in maturing, but is lasting into the end of the growing season in abundance.
I know, it’s purely anecdotal and doesn’t constitute “data”…
This is not good for world food supply. Northamerican grain harvests are behind average and some areas (eg Alberta) are expecting only 80% of their normal crop. Can’t be the lack of sun spots could it? Ask your local grain trader.
Several northeastern states were much above normal for August, including Delaware and New Jersey (eighth warmest), Maine (ninth), and Rhode Island and Connecticut (10th).
I tend to agree with persiflage (14:17:09) : here on the Connecticut Shoreline we had a really nice August, but my sense was that it was cooler than usual. Strictly anecdotal, true, but the notion that it was “much above normal” simply does not ring true.
An earlier comment suggested farmers were stung by lack of global warming.
I think you will find the greatest sceptics are farmers, we live with weather constantly and know the extremes of generations past. we have learned from our fathers etc, of these extremes and how they coped with them and survived .
There is a history of weather in the folklore of most countries to balance the histeria of modern tabloid science. Keep up the good work Andrew, in a world whjere cows are villians of global warming, the Salem witch hunt is almost a rational episode in the history of mankind.
Allegedly slightly warmer than average in UK during the summer but some dahlias left by a preious occupier have got to only half the size of last year and are now dying back.
The trouble is that nature is only an indicator of past and present weather. It’s only of predictive vaue if the same patterns continue and often they don’t.
Still, I’ve suggested a colder winter provided the oceans don’t develop a huge El Nino.
E . M . Smith (13:36:39) :
“GIStemp , dumber than a tomato !” Please stop insulting tomatoes .
Tomatoes still green here in northern England, and the BBQ summer has given way to a bonfire autumn. Oh well, there’s always next year for the ripe red ones. Chutney again this time.
Mark Serreze is at it again:
Ships cross Arctic passage in milestone
Scientists say global warming opens ice-choked passages
“We are seeing an expression of climate change here,” said Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo. “The Arctic is warming; we’re losing the sea ice cover. The more frequent opening of that Northeast Passage is part of the process we’re seeing.”
“The Arctic is becoming a blue ocean,” Serreze told The Associated Press
Let’s look at Cyroshere Today and check with last year:
http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/IMAGES/ARCHIVE/20080911.jpg
Sure enough, that Northeast Passage was open. ok.
Now this year:
http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/NEWIMAGES/arctic.seaice.color.000.png
09/10/2009 and it’s open again. Note, however, how much more ice shows in the 2009 image. Sensitivities and instrument changes???
Moving on:
“For the last few years, including this year, navigator Roald Amundsen’s famous Northwest Passage has been navigable.” AND
“This year is shaping up to have the third lowest amount of Arctic sea ice on record, just behind the worst year set in 2007 and in 2008. But just because 2009 is slightly up from the past two years, it is not an upward trend or a recovery, Serreze said. It reflects a change in local weather patterns that occurred in August, he said.”
“It’s certainly part of the overall decline of sea ice that we’ve been seeing,” Serreze said.
—Are you sure about that? The DMI explorer and the AMSRE Sea Ice extent say differently. Who’s right?
AND FINALLY:
“Both German ships, which carried cargo for a power plant project in Surgut, Siberia, were escorted by a pair of Russian icebreakers during portions of their journey.
Russia has long used its northern coast for shipping fuel, supplies and other goods to its remote Arctic settlements, though funding for such shipments dwindled after the Soviet collapse.”
Oh. Escorted. That’s a far cry from the Arctic turning rapidly into a blue ocean.
So is this something the Russians used to do a lot of, but Mr. Serreze is seizing upon as due to Global Warming, or is this a matter of the Russians currently being able to afford the capability?
I sincerely hope, for the sake of relations with our neighbor across the Arctic, that Mr. Serreze cleared this with the Secretary of State and the Russian Ambassador.
Interestingly, the Canadian national records only go back to 1948 and the climate average is for the years 1951-80. The Met web page claims that summer temps have risen 0.9C through the period which looks to be true, however, if they would include the period from 1920-1947 in their stats this might change things around considerably.
R.John
http://climvis.ncdc.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/cag3/hr-display3.pl
The summer temperatures in the Chicago area are trending down, not up
Link to the AP article above
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32800658/ns/us_news-environment/
The http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/cag3/cag3.html
US CENTRAL TEMPERATURE record archive can be found at the above web address by clicking REGIONAL, then Central and then under PERIOD , click SUMMER
Since when is the 39th coldest summer “Near Normal”???
115 years / 7 categories = around 16 years per category.
Shouldn’t Near Normal be from 48 to 65 or so?
Stephen Wilde
http://www.cgd.ucar.edu/cas/jhurrell/indices.data.html#naostatmon
http://dataservice.eea.europa.eu/atlas/viewdata/viewpub.asp?id=4119
I agree with you about cooler weather ahead for all of Europe and the UK especially for the winters. The negative AMO and winter negative NAO seemed to have had a significant affect on European winter temperatures in the past especially1950-1970’s and the next climate period seems to be heading that way again.[possibly for several decades?] The above web pages have a record of the past European winter temperature deviations and the negative winter NAO. AMO is currently still positive but it should also go cool or negative in not too distant future. I anticipate a somewhat cooler winter for Europe this winter and certainly by 2010/2011 winter and for several decades thereafter. This is what Mojib Latif of the Leibniz Institute of Marine Science , Germany was perhaps alluding to in his recent statements in Geneva, although he was more vague.
Not quite the year without a summer, but the summer we did get was pretty limp and wet. (NY) Does this portend a winter in which my snow shovel (named Al Gore) will get a real workout? Time will tell.
rbateman (15:32:19) :
Mark Serreze is at it again:
-Inane bather of Serreze removed.
Yep,pards, I heard the breathless report on ABC news radio.-I said to myslef:”wait a minute the soviets used to do this all the time!-with icebreakers!”
Guess What?Icebreakers….
We are being lied to…
Average temps for connecticut summer according to NOAA is a crock. I’ve been living in Stamford Ct for 17 summers. I ran the A/C exactly 2 days this summer. Least ever.
Let’s play “One Man and his Proxy”
Check the NOAA for your area and let us know whether the tomatoes or the air conditioning bill agree??