(WGHP) — Every summer in central North Carolina is HOT. Even our coolest summers are still hot. We, of course, have the humidity to make it feel even hotter.
Meteorological records for summer run from June 1 through Aug. 31 since these are the three hottest months of the year, so all records I am sharing are for this time period.
This past spring and early summer was unusually cool in our area. We did not record our first 90-degree day until July 1.
Parts of the country were quite hot, and we often heard about those areas on the news. However, another area saw much cooler than normal temperatures. From Tennessee to Ohio to New York, they saw much cooler weather than normal. We were on the edge of this area and ran a half-degree cooler than normal.
Around the United States, temperatures ran 1° above normal.
In the Northern Hemisphere, more areas were above normal than below.
Temperatures in our hemisphere averaged 1.1° above normal this summer. Globally, of course, the Southern Hemisphere experiences winter from June 1 to Aug. 31. NASA reported that July was the hottest month ever recorded on Earth.
Here at home, we caught a break with our three-month average (lows and highs) temperature 75.7° or 0.5° below normal. This made this the 39th coolest summer here since records began in 1903. It was also the 82nd warmest.
Summer 2023 ranked state’s 39th coolest
Summer 2023 ranked state’s 82nd warmest
Another way we look at our summers is based on 90-degree days. Normally, we have 31 days at or above 90 degrees between June 1 and Aug. 31. This summer, we had 24 of those 90-degree days during this period, seven days less than normal.
When it comes to rain, we were dry this summer. Normally we have 13.19″ of rain during the period. This summer, we only had 9.69″. We ranked 28th driest
Now it is time for fall, looking forward to cooler weather and beautiful leaves.
