BLOG: A Review of Meteorological Summer in Youngstown

Meteorological Summer, the 3 climatologically warmest months of the year, is June, July and August. Now that September has started, let's have a look at the Summer numbers.Part 1: It was a cool Summer, right??? Well, sort of. The perception of the Summer of 2014 is that it was very cool. Yes, there were some very cool stretches, but when we look at the 3 months as a whole....it was almost exactly AVERAGE! Here are the final numbers: It was just 1/5 of a degree below average! Surprising, right? Well it's important to note that June was a WARMER than average June....and August finished warm. That balances the numbers out,Departure from average by month:JUNE: +2.5 degreesJULY: -2.5 degrees AUGUST: -0.6 degrees Another way to look at the data is in graphical form. We flirted with record lows a few times, but no new daily record highs were set: How does this Summer compare to past years? It was slightly cooler than last year and much cooler than the Summers of 2012 and 2011. Not as cool as 2009, 2004: On the list of coolest Summers, this year was nowhere near the top of the list. Part 2: It was really wet right?? YES!!While the temperature stats are not very impressive for the Summer, the rain numbers are. At the YNG airport, there was about 3" more rain than average: A graphical look at the observed rain vs. average rain over the course of the Summer: How does this Summer's rain compare to past years? It was the 15th wettest since on record:  BUT: These numbers are just for the airport, where official records are kept. MANY locations picked up more rain than this over the last few months. Here is a map showing satellite-based rain estimates since June 1: Click on the map to enlarge and see more detail. Notice the legend on the right. The purple/blue colors=more than 20 inches. Northern Trumbull and eastern Mercer had a particularly wet Summer!Thanks for reading!Eric