June saw a number of records fall in the Midwest and Plains, while July was one of the coolest months on record for many in the Midwest and South. August did see a pattern change from July, bringing a taste of the heat. Flooding was also a big story for the month of August.
Wettest summer
Sioux City, Iowa recorded wettest June-August period with 30.38 inches of rain, smashing the previous record of 20.13 inches set in 2010.
June was the wettest month on record with 16.65 inches and August with 10.12 inches for Siouxland, ranked among the top four wettest months in the records dating to 1889.
Chicago Midway Airport too followed closely with 22.21 inches of rain as against the previous record of 21.69 inches, set in 1993.
Wet & Cool Summer
However, this summer was wet and cool in the Chicago area. The city had only three days of 90 degree temperatures and none of them were consecutive. On average Chicago experience 17 days a year with high temperatures at or above 90 degrees.
There has been a shortage of real heat in the Northeast too where Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh all have not reached 95 degrees this summer.
New York City has not had a heat wave this summer. The last summer when there was no heat wave was 10 years ago in 2004.
Atlanta has only hit 95+ degrees once this summer while the average number of days at or above 95 degrees is 11!
Arkansas had their coolest July on record. Little Rock did not reach 100 degrees through August, the first June-August without a century-mark high since 2009. The yearly average is five such days.
On the contrary, parts of the West have been experiencing one of their hottest summers.
John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, California, has seen average or above-average temperatures for 117 consecutive days as of August 31. This is the longest streak in the country at an airport location.
August Records
The second full week in August saw historic flooding in multiple metro areas. First up was Detroit when 4.57 inches of rain fell in on August 11, setting a daily rainfall record.
The next day, on August 12, 6.30 inches of rain was reported in Baltimore, Maryland, setting a daily rainfall record and it was also the second-heaviest calendar-day rainfall amount just behind 7.62 inches that fell on August 23, 1933 during the Great Hurricane.
Islip, New York broke the New York State 24-hour precipitation record the following day, on August 13, when they received 13.57 inches of rain. The previous record was 11.6 inches at Tannersville, New York during Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene in August 2011.
Otherwise, warmer temperatures were felt by most of the country, especially compared with the record cool temperatures seen in July.
Finally, while not a typically an active month for tornadoes, the U.S. tornado count in August was the lowest since the 1960s.
pic courtesy : Accuweather