Summer 2010 vs Summer 2011, which was worse Options

[BtownWxWatcher]

vote

[Removed_Member_Garrett_*]

Considering the furnace turned on throughout the east starting in May and stayed until early October...I would definitely say last Summer was worse. As this Summer (here anyways) did not get severely hot until July. July has been the only really bad month.

[BtownWxWatcher]

Considering the furnace turned on throughout the east starting in May and stayed until early October...I would definitely say last Summer was worse. As this Summer (here anyways) did not get severely hot until July. July has been the only really bad month.

Its been scorching since the end of may, reason i say 2011 is of the humidity, i dont like 100/80 obs

[snowlover2]

In my neck of the woods, it was this summer. It was so much more hotter and humid than last year.

[Hurricane Halen]

This summer without a doubt. This heat started in late May and hasn't let up. Our last rain for the Shreveport/Bossier area was July 4. Today will be day 45 with temps over 100. Our record is 47. In the next 7 days, our coolest day will be 103. And this heat wave is also taking its toll on our neighbors in Tex, Ark and Okla.

This high pressure ridge has sat on the southen plains and will not move/break down. Things are so critical here that small towns around the area have begun shutting water systems down at night to conserve water. Brush/Woods fires are burning all over the place and now, within the city limits of Shreveport. That just doesn't happen here, but it is now. The NWS office in Shreveport is stating that this year will go down as the hottest recorded summer, EVER.

And, it looks like this ridge is in place for the long haul and there is nothing coming to flatten it out, break it down or move it. Things are seriously bad in the Ark La Tex.

[Hertz]

And, it looks like this ridge is in place for the long haul and there is nothing coming to flatten it out, break it down or move it. Things are seriously bad in the Ark La Tex.

This year in and around OK and TX is most indeed a nightmare. No questions.

As for relief, your only short term prospects are climatologically cooling normals attributed to shorter days (which would really take until October to make any discernable difference) or from a TS. But the one possible later next week could end up more a Florida affair, even if it does happen, unfortunately. And it'll still be at least another month or two before any hopes of having a front punch notably into this ridge.

Though by "long haul", what amount of time are you referring to for sure - next several weeks or next several months? Because even if temps are still well above normal, it should be nothing like this by later October or November. (You'd likely be looking at days consistently in the 80s.)

Anyways for my area, it's hard to vote just yet. I'm not going to vote officially until summer is done. So far it would be last year for me, but July this year was worse than anything last year so I feel I must leave the vote until later, when (knock on wood 100,000 times) the extreme ridge will not have expanded again into my neck of the woods.

As for nationally, this year is worse for sure - simply because nothing, not even the most extreme periods, in 2010 comes even remotely close to rivalling OK/TX area this year. It's like the Desert Southwest has temporarily expanded, literally. Except with worse humidity to boot in many cases.

[TheMaineMan]

Although this summer brought our first 100 degree day in nearly 30 years (last year we only hit 94), last summer's heat was more consistent. This summer's heat has been mixed with quite a few significant cool spells, and stretches of what I would consider seasonable temperatures (very close to average). However, last summer lacked cool spells, and the heat dragged on through September and early October (for our standards, at least.) Also, last year's heat started in April (the extremely warm anomalies actually began in February if you look at departures from normal) while it was quite cool through early June this year.

[Hurricane Halen]

This year in and around OK and TX is most indeed a nightmare. No questions.

As for relief, your only short term prospects are climatologically cooling normals attributed to shorter days (which would really take until October to make any discernable difference) or from a TS. But the one possible later next week could end up more a Florida affair, even if it does happen, unfortunately. And it'll still be at least another month or two before any hopes of having a front punch notably into this ridge.

Though by "long haul", what amount of time are you referring to for sure - next several weeks or next several months? Because even if temps are still well above normal, it should be nothing like this by later October or November. (You'd likely be looking at days consistently in the 80s.)

Anyways for my area, it's hard to vote just yet. I'm not going to vote officially until summer is done. So far it would be last year for me, but July this year was worse than anything last year so I feel I must leave the vote until later, when (knock on wood 100,000 times) the extreme ridge will not have expanded again into my neck of the woods.

As for nationally, this year is worse for sure - simply because nothing, not even the most extreme periods, in 2010 comes even remotely close to rivalling OK/TX area this year. It's like the Desert Southwest has temporarily expanded, literally. Except with worse humidity to boot in many cases.

Long haul meaning, 4-6 weeks. Just mentioning 1 more week of this type of weather is far to long for most of us here. We've had it since the end of May and people are beyond ready for fall/winter.

It's funny, when Hurricane Ike made land fall, and moved over us before getting kicked Northeast, it brought fall with it. After IKE, we never made it past 80 degrees and that is unheard of for this region, esp for late Aug/Sept!.

[Hertz]

To the above - I feel your pain, such a miserable weather period since the end of May. Not to mention April was incredibly warm in Shreveport too (sort of a prelude, then you got a few cool spells to make May more typical).

It's shocking for your area that August has actually been HOTTER than July which in itself was 4.7 degrees above normal because in my area July was by far the worst month of the summer. The other two I'd merely call "warm". They can't even match 2010. But it will be well into the fall before I make an official vote on which summer was worse.

Some models show a front going a little further south next week but it's far from a guarantee at this point, unfortunately, so I wouldn't bet on it - could easily stay to the North or West (currently very few models have this airmass originating in the East).

[Noreastericane]

I picked summer 2011.

June was a blowtorch, July was the hottest month ever, there was a lot more severe weather and power outages IMBY than last summer, plus Irene and the Earthquake in August.

Summer 2010 was more consistently hot and is still the hottest summer ever for Baltimore, but all the other factors made this summer more extreme for me.

[Hertz]

Well all those who called for another scorcher of a summer in the Mid-Atlantic were right, but I don't think any locations broke last year's record (although many places did establish a record for hottest July).

Of the major cities in the MA states that I can think of, DC was closest for the full season, just 0.2 degrees cooler than 2010. Probably second hottest summer on record there.

One similarity to 2010 is that overall for the Mid-Atl region, August was the month that was closest to normal. Philadelphia even squeaked out a negative departure for the month, oddly enough. (Scranton, PA also managed this.) Actually I believe August was the coolest since 2008 for most places (meaningful since August of 2009 was the only real summery month the region had that year), but it was too little and too late to make a big difference. In many places, even August 2010 was not more than a degree warmer than (August) 2009 anyways.

Of course for the US as a whole, the situation in the Southern Plains this summer made it undeniably more extreme than last summer, no questions asked. But I believe this thread is mostly meant to focus on the MA and surrounding areas. There I'd say July was even more extreme, in most places, but June, August, and the season as a whole fell a bit short of last year. Not too far short, though - as I said those calling for another hot summer in the region definitely got it right.

We can only hope 2012 gives the region a well-deserved break, but it's still a bit too early to speculate.

This post has been edited by Hertz: Sep 2 2011, 07:06 PM

[SnowMan11]

This year because it rained way tooo much.

[Hertz]

This year because it rained way tooo much.

Rain = more opportunities for cooler temps. Cooler temps = nicer.

Looking at NYC (which Bronx is very close to) analysis shows June and August were about two degrees cooler than in 2010 and even July was about a degree cooler (as compared to further south/west where it was actually warmer in July this year though not for the full 3-month period). So if you're going by a heat standpoint, it's fairly easy to say last year was worse for NYC.

[grace]

For my area in W. Kentucky & then in the Evansville, In. area there was no comparison to the heat this summer vs. last summer. Here's the summary from the Paducah NWS posted yesterday:

Summer of 2011: How did it rank in terms of temperature and rainfall?

Meteorological summer is defined as the months of June, July, and August. All of the following data are based on preliminary figures.

At Paducah, the average summer temperature ranked as the tenth warmest on record. The average temperature was 79.3 degrees. The record warmest summer was 81.0 degrees, which occurred just last year as well as in 1952 and 1954. Records at Paducah go back to 1937.

At Evansville, the average summer temperature ranked as the 17th warmest on record. The average temperature was 79.0 degrees, which also occurred in 1933 and 1980. The record warmest summer is 82.1 degrees, which occurred in 1936. Records at Evansville go back to 1897.

Rainfall for the summer was 13.80 inches at Evansville and 12.04 inches at Paducah. These rainfall amounts were above normal. The 13.80 inches at Evansville was the 18th highest. The summer rainfall at Paducah did not rank in the top 20. The turn toward somewhat drier weather was in sharp contrast to the spring, which was the wettest spring on record at Paducah and the 2nd wettest spring at Evansville.

So, overall we were cooler & wetter than last summer.

[grace]

According to the summer anomalies for June-August of 2010 versus 2011 it's interesting. The national average was the warmest in 75 years according to NOAA but that's very deceiving. This summer 36 states were cooler than last summer, 1 was the same, & only 11 were warmer. Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona, S. Kansas were so hot that it actually is the cause for the national average temp to rise. That should be carefully noted when saying it was the warmest summer in 75 years.





This post has been edited by grace: Sep 11 2011, 07:52 PM

[WhiteChristmas]

This year because it rained way tooo much.

Espically my area with the record crest of the Susquehanna River this past week.

[Beck]

Both the summers of 2010 and 2011 were the coolest summers we've experienced here in Southern California since the 1970s. They've been fantastic....

[Wild Wisconsin W...]

This summer, no contest. There was more convection, severe weather last summer which cooled us off from time to time. This summer was hot and humid with not much relief in the form of thunderstorms.

[grace]

This summer, no contest. There was more convection, severe weather last summer which cooled us off from time to time. This summer was hot and humid with not much relief in the form of thunderstorms.

The anomaly for you state begs to differ.

Wisconsin Summer of 2010: 69.2

Wisconsin Summer of 2011: 68.7

But in terms of how you remember it feeling...that's a different story. But even with the averages, I understand the thunderstorm point.

[Wild Wisconsin W...]

The anomaly for you state begs to differ.

Wisconsin Summer of 2010: 69.2

Wisconsin Summer of 2011: 68.7

But in terms of how you remember it feeling...that's a different story. But even with the averages, I understand the thunderstorm point.

Yeah, I should have clarified I wasn't necessarily talking about temperatures. The summer as a whole was less enjoyable weather than last summer for me. Also, the state did well in terms of convection and was perhaps slightly cooler, but that doesn't mean Milwaukee is representative of that. We had a couple days that were hotter than any day the previous summer.