Summer? What Summer?
Posted on August 1, 2009 Posted by John Scalzi 56 Comments
This last July was the second coolest in local history, with an average temperature of 69.5 degrees. Which, is, you know, sick. At least it’s not as cold as the Great Freezination of July 1947, which was so cold that children actually froze in the city swimming pools. Yeah, I’m lying about that. But still, damn.
The general forecast for August suggests it’s not going to be hugely warn this month, either. I’m beginning to worry about the possibility of snow in September. At this rate, it’s possible.
Well, fine. Snow in October, though. It could happen.
I was wondering how the Pacific Northwest managed to spread so fast.
I think the PNW got some leftover summer from the SW US this year, weren’t they having hundred-plus OMGWTFBBQ heat?
I’m just glad it’s NOT RAINING today here in Central Maine. It rained all of June and most of July. Makes me very glad I’m not a subsistence farmer because between the slugs and the blight there isn’t going to be much in the way of harvest this year.
Here in the London (UK) area we had a heatwave around the end of June, July here was mostly cool and showery with temps in the low 70s F. August is starting out that way as well, though we only had a little rain today. I’ve read that here it’s due to the jet stream being further south than normal, which is allowing a series of lows to come in from the southwest. However, elsewhere in Europe they are having heatwaves and fires.
Lots of people bought summer clothing based on the heatwave in June, and long-range forecasters here saying July would be great for barbecues. I’ve spent most of July in clothing more suited toward winter – sweats, flannel shirts, winter pajamas, etc. Also due to the recession a lot of people planned on taking theiir holidays here instead of going abroad and it’s been the wrong year to have done that. Today’s papers were full of ‘last minute’ deals for trips to sunshine locations.
The Pacific Northwest took a vacation and went to Other Parts. In the meantime, Arizona decided to come for a visit up here, since we were, in fact, having OMGWTFBBQ up here.
Funny, I moved to Seattle from Boston, citing the Boston weather as one of my reasons….and lo, we had both Snowpocalypse and Hotpocalypse in one year. Record breaking heat and two weeks of snow the likes Seattle hadn’t seen in about 15 years.
I will give you my summer, if you just give me mine back. That’s all I ask.
Ah, that explains it! We got YOUR summer along with ours! Average temp for July 09 in Austin was 89.5 which broke a record from 1880 something. Even worse, our average high was 102. Average.
Any room up at your place?
Well, I’m going to enjoy our hundred-degree day here in Idaho. Time to get on the river!
Kansas got snow in October about 5 years ago — wet, heavy snow that destroyed trees in large numbers. The typical tree destruction was a circle of branches on the ground surrounding a bare trunk. The weight of snow on trees with all their leaves was enough to strip the trunks in this pattern, where it didn’t just send old giants falling across the roads.
This is the price you’re paying for last year’s _good_ weather durring campaign season.
I, here in Seattle, would gladly trade you weather. I would like to have my usual weather back, which seems to have located itself in your general area.
100 degree weather is just wrong, I tell you.
I moved to Houston at the start of June, and believe me that I would trade you our weather if I could.
Denver’s been unusually cool and wet this year – our June almost broke the rainfall record, and I wouldn’t be surprised if July wasn’t straining it either. Usually we’re in the middle of lawn-watering season, but we haven’t had to break out the sprinkler yet.
Yeah, well, you can have this Portland weather. Last Tuesday we broke our previous record by six degrees, pushing us to a balmy 107. It’s gotten better since then, although “better” is definitely a relative term.
I would trade our weather for yours without a second thought. 69.5 degrees sounds lovely.
Global Warmin! ;)
If Minnesota were always like this in the summer it would be fabulous. Although I feel guilty enjoying the cool weather because I know we’re also not getting enough rain and it’s messing with stuff. Bleh.
I grew up in Ohio; snow in October was uncommon but not unheard of. I definitely went trick-or-treating in the snow once or twice.
Though I guess I was farther north than you are. Almost but not quite within range of what they call “lake effect” snow by Lake Erie.
In this part of Ohio (around Dayton) we get lake effect snow from Lake Michigan if the wind is just right.
Personally I ADORE this kind of summer, but I did grow up in the Pacific Northwest. Rest assured, it will probably get brutally hot when the kids have to go back to school at the end of August. (Last year the Dayton Schools had to cancel for heat days.)
Native Columbusite here. I don’t think snow in October is unheard of. My birthday is in mid-October, and there’s almost always frost on the car in the morning by then. Definitely can get ice storms that early.
Speaking as someone in the Pacific North West, you can have our the 100+ weather we’ve been having. We’d all be very happy to go back to about 70.
Global warming!!!
Also, I <3 the Lake Effect. Cleveland winters ROCK! (Even if its summers are hotter than heck to make up for it.)
gah. mid to upper 90’s here. Humidity in the 70 – 80’s% range. Nasty. Be glad it is cool there. I hate summer in the deep south.
Skatcjo: Seattle also hit its record high: 103. This is a land where only 13% of the population have air conditioners.
Also, I’m told they lost power to one of the Seattle suburbs when heat caused power lines to sag into the trees. Man, glad that didn’t happen in our hood.
Coming from a long line of farmers (some of whom decamped from New England (and settled in what’s now southern Michigan & northern Ohio) after twenty consecutive months of Killing Frosts (acto Family Tradition) in the northeast, and still associating with many Plant People, I can’t recall ever going through a season when a lot of people didn’t complain about how bad (and unusual) the weather was.
As far as I’m concerned, the weather here in Southern California seems to have been pretty much within the usual range, though of course I’m complaining that it’s uncomfortably hot, and that the tomatoes are just sitting there (& in some cases getting sun-scalded) rather than ripening properly, or the plants producing new flowers, but that’s actually par for the course.
It has been hot, hot, hot where I live. I would take a little of your summer!
Thena @2 – yes. A Portland friend of mine came for a visit and got his luggage mixed up, so he got our hot California summer and left us with the PNW’s normal cool n’ rainy. He said to tell you “my bad”.
In the 60s, northeastern Ohio got snow regularly in late October and early November, but it rarely stuck. We usually had to wait for December for continuous snow coverage.
But this has been a remarkably cool summer. I don’t think we’ve had a day over 90 yet.
Dear West Coasters:
We’re nice and cool here in the dog days whilst you all are roasting in triple digits. Which means the Pacific’s heating up. Which means El Nino. We hope you enjoy the coming El Nino as much as we Midwesterners will.
‘Cuz you know what El Nino means in Ohio, don’t you?
Golf on New Year’s Day, baby!
But don’t worry. Cincinnati pretty much turns into Seattle for the entire month of February during El Nino, and suddenly, those late winter deep freezes don’t sound so bad.
I should mention that in the last 24 hours Seattle has been inching the mercury down. Two nights ago, I went to bed with a fan and a plate of ice cubes. Last night, it was just the fan.
You should try Turin (Italy): over 30 C now (almost 10 in the evening), wet and no breeze…for one night of sleep I would trade with your temperature
@mythago – I lived in PDX for eight years before moving to Maine four years ago. Louisiana for 20-odd years before that (Baton Rouge and outer-suburban New Orleans).
I liked Oregon summers. I can deal with the heat if it’s a dry heat. 105 and 20% humidity does not suck anywhere NEAR as badly as 85 and 80% humidity. You open your eyes and break a sweat because there’s nowhere for the moisture to go.
Unfortunately, Maine has the same typical “moist heat” waves as the rest of the continent east of the Rockies; we are fortunate only in that the temps usually max out in the upper 80s or low 90s instead of ten degrees (F) higher. It’s just been abysmally wet this season – last weekend it was about 67F and 100% humidity. Think “Oregon winter, only with mosquitoes.”
But today is nice, if a bit muggier than I’d like.
I want this heat to Go Away.
There’s a reason skiing is one of my favorite sports.
Adding my voice to those of the Pacific Northwesterners complaining…
Feel free to take back your summer anytime now… Really, we don’t need Ohio summers in the PNW :>.
*sigh*
I’ve spent the past 5 weeks in La Jolla, living it up with 70-75 and sun sun sun every day…but I’m pissed that I’m missing such a cool summer in Dayton! And you know it’ll be 95 and gross when I return in two weeks.
Sounds great to me :P
I’m a Houston native and I would give anything for the summer weather we had when I was growing up. We have been caught in a heat and drought situation for a while now.
Even our winter was warmer than usual.
It’s long been my and my Partner In Crime’s opinion that the Miami Valley’s weather is ruled by Coyote.
I’m now persuaded that Coyote and Raven had a gambling session and wound up trading whose weather they’re ruling.
I’m also not at all sure I like the idea of winter in October.
I’m raising my hand to join the PNW’ers who have had it with the heat. There is something wrong when I look at a 5-day forecast calling for high temps in the upper 80’s and suddenly consider that “cool”.
I’ve got 90 degree heat over in Northern VA. Walking out of the IKEA into 80+ with high humidity at 9 freeking PM was like a slap in the face.
Here in central Texas, they’re saying that July 2009 has been the hottest on record.
Blame it all on the “Global Warming”…. weather all messed up and everything.
It was a nice 92 deg. today here in New Orleans!!! Come on down and get warm. It rained a little midday and that only made it steamy for the rest of the day. Thats what I get for living in the subtropics!! But I LOVE New Orleans!! Would not live anywhere else!!!
eviljwinter: It’s only the Pacific Northwest that is roasting. My suburban house inland from San Francisco is 79F. We’ve had an unusually mild summer here. I’ve only had to run the air conditioner for a week and a half. (Usually it’s on every day for three months.)
Steve@41: Isn’t 80 degrees considered roasting for SF? (One of the reasons I’d love to move there.)
Pixelfish@21
Yeah, it was Laurelhurst, just north of UW. It made for a bit of excitement at Children’s Hospital where I work. Luckily, the backup generator came up in about 10 seconds and stayed with it for the 4 hours or so till Seattle Power and Light got it together again.
My coworkers are awesome with awesome sauce. It got a little warm since AC is prioritized for the patients and families but everyone coped and acted like it was just another day, made adjustments, kept the kids safe and dealt with it. These people totally rock and I love working here.
It’s 20 degrees cooler today(84) than it was Wednesday, the breeze is off of the Sound and everyone is much happier. The local Sears has a sign on the door telling everyone that they now have some air conditioners back in stock.
The weather in Seattle is getting more extreme: not just hotter more often in the summer, but colder more often in the winter. And the precipitation patterns are changing as well: we now routinely get monsoon-intensity rain, all through the year, which we should not be getting this far north.
Between El Nino and La Nina and climate change it’s really hard to tell what ‘normal’ is anymore – but I’ve been saying for years that worse-than-normal summers and worse-than-normal winters will likely be the trend here in the formerly-mild PNW. The last 2 or 3 summers I’ve muttered about buying an AC during the off-season; I think I’ll actually do it this year, in expectation of more ghastly summer heat waves.
Channel 13 weatherguy in Grand Rapids did a check and most of the time when we get a cold summer, we DON’T get a cold or excessively snowy winter.
Assuming you believe in statistics.
Dr. Phil
Sf itself has been ~60f for the last month. Typical July/August. Everywhere in the Bay Area outside the city limits has been “cool”, ~80f. This time of year the East Bay usually hits 90-100f…
Yep, the left coast gets it this year. It’s been 30C plus for a while now and I’m loving it . . .
@Megan Agreed, the cool weather here in Minnesota has been great.
The dryness of the weather, especially around the Twin Cities, is going to be bad for the crops. (The lack of mosquitoes, though, I am not crying about)
I have to admit this was not the weather I packed for. I’m in Cleveland this week (and weekend) for work and expected the usual insane heat/humidity and occasional thunderstorm kinda deal. Nope, yesterday was pretty much perfectly gorgeous with high clouds, blue sky, breeze and a steady 70 degrees or so. It actually gets cool at night. Midwest, what are doing screwing with this West Coast girl’s image of you??
eviljwinter@42: I am in the East Bay. 90F+ temperatures are normal in the summer. It makes going to work in the city a real pain as you have to dress for 65F and then get off the train in the evening in 95F weather.
At least normally…not much this year though.
Fresno has had a sort of summer-lite so far this year.
There’ve been a couple of days that hit 112 F, and we’ve just come off a run of, oh, seems like about two weeks with every day’s high north of 100 F. But considering that a couple of years ago every day in July save one went to 100 F or above, it has been almost pleasant this year, especially since I think most of June managed highs below the seasonal normal.
Currently, at almost 4:30 p.m., it is 94 degrees (according to the Weather Channel), but the humidity is at 16 percent, which puts the “feels-like” temperature at around 90, not bad at all for late afternoon on 2 August, and I didn’t feel the need to run the a/c until nearly 3 p.m. Since I don’t do hot weather, that’s remarkable.
Furthermore, by the end of this week, highs are forecast in the low 90s, several degrees below normal for this time of year.
August and September could still turn ugly hot, of course, and there’s usually at least one or two really hot days at the beginning of October, but after July the hot spells typically don’t last as long or top out as high as they do in July.
Umm, it was so hot this Sunday, the bottom of my NEW shoes melted off after only half an hr on the roof. Photo evidence on my blog. So either it’s hot in FL or I’m one HOT BABE.
If it’s too cold to go swimming all summer, I want my money back.
Sunny Pensacola, FL. Never a bad day. :D
Yeah, can we trade back? Portland OR is getting record heat… *sniff*
I melt when it’s over 85…
I am in Canada and it is disgustingly hot here. Like, forest fire hot. Recorded historical record breaking hot. I personally function best in the mid teens to low 20s of temperature…last week my office was 35 indoors. (Luckily, I was not there.)
(Note: all temperatures in Kelvin. Or maybe Celsius.)