Burlington's 60 Degree Streak Ends; Hottest Summer Next?

It's officials. While most of us were sleeping at 3:16 a.m this morning, the temperature in Burlington, Vermont dipped below 60 degrees, ending a 41-day streak in which the temperature was continuously above that level. 

Another new record. National Weather Service in 
South Burlington said the streak of consecutive
days of continuous temperatures at or above 60
degrees ended early this morning. 

This breaks the old record of 37 days set in 1898.

The 1898 wasn't nearly as warm as this one.  In the 1898 streak, the hottest afternoon only reached 89 degrees and 15 days during this period never made it out of the 70s for highs. 

In our just ended 41-day streak, only three days failed to touch 80 degrees and nine days were at or above 90 degrees during the afternoon.

We've had this streak and the hottest July on record so far this summer. We've got a great shot at having the hottest entire summer on record, too.  Climatologists regard "summer" as the period between June 1 and August 31. 

In addition to the hottest July, June was a good three degrees warmer than normal.  The current August "cool" spell will only last through Saturday before an extended period of well above normal temperatures occur.

By my calculation, in order to make this summer the hottest on record, the average temperature this August will need to be 70.8 degrees, or two degrees warmer than average. 

Based on current forecasts, an August that warm this year is certainly possible, but definitely no slam dunk. 

And about our current cool weather.  As temperatures dropped a bit and the humidity plummeted last evening, I, and a lot of other people said the air felt a bit autumnal.  I don't think we ever would have said that a few decades ago.

The weather we had last evening was, basically, August in Vermont as it was in the past.

Look at this morning's low temperature in Burlington. It got down to 56 degrees, which is a paltry four degrees cooler than average. Not a big deal. The record low for the date is 44 degrees. 

That's not to say we won't have any more cool summers.  Even with climate change we often still have colder than normal periods lasting days, weeks, even months.  Just not nearly as often as we used to. After three super hot summers in a row, next summer could be quite chilly for all we know. 

I know I said it's' going to turn very warm and humid again in the coming days,  but remember, it's August: Summer will rapidly come to end.  Normal temperatures are starting to fall.  In a blink of an eye, we'll start worrying about frosts in our gardens again. 

Just not this week or next, that's for sure.