We enjoyed many beautiful spring days this year leading up to summer. The warm winter had many fearing a torrid summer would follow. Of course I pointed out that history did not bear that out as inevitable with about equal chances of a hotter than normal summer as a cooler than normal or just average summer following a warmer than normal winter. When you look at the climate maps July really stands out as our only hotter than normal month this summer with June and August cooler than average but very humid. We were lucky that when the heat wave hit it was a dry heat, still brutal but it could have been worse if humidity had been high.

Labor Day marks the traditional end of the summer season, although meteorological summer ends August 30th, and the fall equinox marking the start of astronomical autumn is September 22nd at 10:49 A.M. EDT. This summer was quite different from the unrelenting heat of 2011. After about 4 consecutive hot summers we deserved a break.

The data is in and it shows this summer was just barely warmer than normal or close to average, with the 3-month average for June-July-August +1.1 degrees F. That breaks down like this: June was just +0.1 F above average, July was very hot at +3.6 above average, and August was a tad below average at -0.4F. Away from the airport the month of August was 1 to 2  full degrees cooler than normal in most of the state. Statewide for summer it was on the whole (in the mean) coolest in South Georgia. For the U.S. as a whole you can see on the map the long hot summer was in the center of the country biased toward the Rockies. The worst drought conditions were across the American heartland.

Below normal rainfall for the summer as expected 25% drier than normal for the 90-day summer period. June rainfall was -1.7 below normal (58% of average), July rain was -1.7 inches below normal (67% of average), while August was 100% of average short by  just -0.1 inches for the month. All these stats are only from Hartsfield so click on the maps to see the big picture.

For comparison, the summer of 2011 was 3.3F above normal with rainfall at about 50% of normal. So summer 2012 was no repeat of last summer.

The outlook for September calls for temperatures to average near-normal to slightly above-normal for the 30-day average while rainfall is expected to be near-normal to a bit above-normal averaged over the 30 day month with October projected with about the same pattern vs. average.