Looking Back at Climate Statistics From Summer 2018! (Credit: NOAA National Center for Environmental Information)

Discussion: As the nights get darker earlier and with  astronomical fall just beginning, NOAA’s National Center for Environmental Prediction has released their climate statistics for this past summer (June 2018-August 2018). Overall, the average summer temperature across the contiguous United States was 73.5°F.This temperature was 2.1°F higher than the normal average. The normal average minimum temperature was 60.9°F. The minimum temperatures created a new record, coming in 2.5°F above normal, since the records were first taken in 1895. The normal temperature trend held up in states across the Northeastern United States, the West Coast, and the South. According to NOAA, this summer came in as a tie with the summer of 1934 for the fourth warmest summer on record, since they began recording. Twenty-three states across the West, South, and Northeast all experienced above average temperatures. Utah and Rhode Island both experienced record warmth this past summer.

The average total of summertime precipitation this year was 8.95 inches, which was above average by 0.63 inches. Since the first recording in 1895, this past summer was the twenty-fifth wettest. From the Great Plains to the East Coast, many states experienced above average precipitation. States in parts of the plains and the Mid-Atlantic region saw significantly greater than average precipitation. The state of Pennsylvania in particular recorded 18.78 inches of precipitation. The opposite could be noted for parts of the Western and Southern United States. These regions experienced a summer of below average precipitation. The standout state in the West was Washington, which experienced its eleventh driest summer on record. Local parts of the southwestern region did receive precipitation from monsoonal moisture but the rest of the region stayed below average. 

To check out more climate statistics from this summer, be sure to click on the following link: https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/september-2018-regional-climate-impacts-and-outlooks

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©2018 Meteorologist Shannon Scully