Still on Track for the Hottest Summer

With three of the past four days featuring highs only in the 80s at the Salt Lake City International Airport, you might wonder if our record setting hot summer might be in jeopardy.  Well, we've lost a bit of ground, but thanks to continued high minimum temperatures, not all that much.

With just five days to go, our average temperature for summer (June, July, and August) sits at 80.8ºF, 1.5ºF warmer than the previous hottest summer (2007).

Source: NCDC

For the next few days, the pattern largely remains the same, with some periods of monsoon clouds and thunderstorms.  I think we will hang on for victory.  One record that we might fall short of is the number of days reaching 100ºF or more.  I believe we sit at 20, whereas the record is 21.  I don't see us pushing 100 the next few days and the latest that the airport has reached 100 is Sep 8, so time is running out.  On the other hand, we've hit 99 as late as Sep 14 and the way this year is going we probably can't rule out a possible 100 until mid Sep.  We'll see if Mother Nature can bring it.

Finally, I remain amazed at how few days we have observed a below average minimum temperature this summer.  Here's a count:

June: 8

July: 0

August: 1 (so far).

That's right, we had a Blutarski ("zero point zero") in July and haven't done much better in August.  We'll have a closer look at what an outlier year this has been for minimum temperature in a future post.