Summer weather Review

This was posted by meteorologist Kirk Mellish on his blog at http://www.wsbradio.com/.

Summer review:

• June temperatures (highs AND lows averaged together) were +4.0F... with 24 90 or above days and three 95 or above days. Rainfall was only 56% of normal.

• July temperatures as above were +2.2F... with 27 days of 90 or above and six days of 95 or above. Rainfall was only 51% of normal.

• August temperatures as above were +3.6F... with 29 days of 90 or above and 12 days of 95 or above. Rainfall was just 39% of normal.

• There were no triple digit high temperatures this summer, but August 26th was 99. So the 3-month summer season averaged 3.2 degrees F above normal.

• For Atlanta, with 133 years of data, 2011 was the third-warmest summer on record with 2010; only the summers of 1980 and 1993 were warmer. According to the Georgia state climatologist office: "summer 2011 ranked third with a temp of 82.26 and summer 2010 ranked fourth with a temp of 82.17".
  
  1980 was 82.67 and 1993 was 82.28..

Temperatures in Atlanta didn't break ANY daily high temp records this summer; we just rarely got a break from the heat. Many past summers have had more record highs than this summer, more upper 90s, longer 95+ streaks, and more 100s than this summer, most recently 2007.
Based on the average  high temperature, it was also the third-warmest summer on record with an average high temperature of 92.5 F (4.5 F above average).
Based on average mean temperatures our summer was like Tampa Bay, FL. (temp not humidity or rainfall).

• The summer rainfall for Atlanta was 6.38 inches (6.04 inches below average), making it the 9th driest summer on record.

• Atlanta rainfall the past 90 days is -6 inches, and for the last 365 days rainfall is 8 inches below normal
• Total summer rainfall averaged just 48.6% of normal or 51.4% below-normal rain.

The longest streak of 90 or above was 16 days in August, putting this summer in 2^nd place in history IF you include September behind 21 days in 1993. For spring AND summer 2011 is in first place for days of 90 or above at 89, ahead of 79 in 1980 and 72 in 2010, 1993, 1986, 1954, and 1943.
A typical summer in Atlanta  (June-July-August) will give us 37 days with a high of 90 or above, and nine days with a high of 95 or above. This summer gave us a whopping 80 days of 90 degrees or above and 21 days of 95F or above.

This summer ranks in the top 3 hottest in history in Atlanta, just barely behind 1980 and 1993 based on daily high temperatures and average (mean) temperature.  Both 90 and 95-degree days were way above normal, with 6-month 90 days setting a new record, and probably 1^st place for summer as well.
There have been many years when the summer failed to register a high temperature of 95 or more, most recently 2005. The fewest number of 90 degree days was just two in the summer of 1967!