Meteorlogical Summer 2024

Meteorological summer runs June 1st through August 31st. In the dates all summer time weather records are kept.

Overall when many think of the summer of 2024. 2 things will probably stand out. Those are

• Warm
• Dry

While it has been a warm and dry summer, it doesn’t go without periods of wet and cool. While we didn’t see many periods of wet and cool in June and July, those showed up in areas in August and that does tamper the overall extremity for the summer as a whole.

Let’s start with precipitation. Summer time precipitation is largely convective in nature. This August we did however see some impacts from the remnants of what was once Hurricane and then Tropical Storm Debby. Areas east most impacted by that.

in June:

JUNE ACCUMULATION

JUNE DEPARTURE

JULY ACCUMULATION

JULY DEPARTURE

AUGUST ACCUMULATION

• Some of these areas east over 12″ of rain in August!

AUGUST DEPARTURE

August in many areas across the Alleghenies coming in near normal with precipitation. Some areas just above, some areas just below. Drier west, wetter east and also the northern Alleghenies as you worked in to Somerset and Cambria. Partially because of Debby, but also the past week seen plenty of rain in that area.

THE SUMMER AS A WHOLE

ACCUMULATION

DEPARTURE

Areas east, that were dry more than made up for it in August. Enough so when years from now, folks look back at the summer in it’s entirety, they’ll see an above normal precipitation summer there. While over the Alleghenies, what was mostly very dry, saw improvement in August.

My summer time precipitation from June 1- August 31:

Bittinger 2NW Valley

June 2.71″, July 2.92″, August 4.97″ for a summer total of 10.60″

The old Bittinger 2NW Coop that ran from 1953 to 1975 recieved equal or less amounts 9 times. Lots of dry summers in that period area wide.

Bayard with a summer total of 8.66. Here’s a discontinuity factor, as observation times change. Older data often was 5 or 6pm recordings, and it’s 7am now. So any precip that fell after 7am at most area coops does go in the books for Sept 1st. That said as it is. Bayard finished with the 7th driest summer in 122 years. That is throwing out any year’s that had more than 10 missing days of data. Which were few.

Canaan Heights(Davis 3SE), since 2003 coming in with the 2nd driest summer at 12.17. Again any precip after 7am yesterday, goes in to the books as Sept 1.

Canaan Valley coming in with the 15th driest summer since 1945 at 11.93. Once again, the p.m precip of yesterday goes in the books for September. Also any years with more than 10 missing summer days we’re eliminated in which there were plenty at the original coop. 93 was a overlap year as transition to new observer occured and counted as 1.

At Elkins, the 7th driest summer since 1926. At 9.29″. Great data continuity here. Also those is a midnight recording station, so that included any precip from yesterday up through midnight last night.

Laurel Summit PA coming in with the 10th driest summer since 1971 with 11.56″. That’s 2 sites, and again eliminating years with more than 10 missing days of data.

Frostburg coming in with as the 13th driest summer since 1898 with 7.75″.

Cumberland coming in with the 27th driest summer since 1893 at 7.47″

Down to Snowshoe, coming in with the 3rd driest summer since 1977 with 9.08. Again, this does not count the precipitation that occured yesterday for August. It does go in the books for September 1st.

In summary, a very dry summer that was occuring saw some August improvement. August totals

August tallies:

Snowshoe 3.24

Canaan Heights 4.62

Bayard 2.88

Elkins 4.08 (includes yesterdays)

Bittinger 2NW Valley 4.97, includes through 6pm yesterday

Frostburg 4.78

Cumberland 5.02

Somerset 4.94

Confluence 4.34

Laurel Summit 4.90

Spruce Knob 6.75

SUMMER TEMPS

August

August tempered the summer as a whole that was well above normal, to still above normal, but a ease back from how much above. Had it not been for August, these site below would have been a bit higher.

Stations: at the coops

Bayard – 28th warmest summer. Eliminating summers with 10 plus days. Observation times can have a impact here.

Canaan Heights(Davis 3SE) 4th warmest in 21 years. Station site change can have a impact. Mostly in this case. Maxes a touch cooler, mins a touch warmer with the site change.

Frostburg 20th warmest

Confluence

Some COOL data, literally cool

The Northern Canaan Valley station with a average August Min of 45.4. 3 days with below freezing. Now, this next part is a apple to orange comparison due to site location. That 45.4 is the coldest average min recorded in the Valley for August. The original coop had recorded a 46.4 in 1957. At a site location that is just a bit warmer. At the coop site in 57, a low of 25 occured, and freezing obtained 4 times. A good assumption would be the northern valley station had it existed in 57′ may have ran 2 or 3 degrees colder on average vs the coop site for the month.

The 45.4 this month also tied Mt.Washington for the coldest average min in the east. Also 48.5 avg min in July was a tie to Mt. Washington for coldest avg min in the east . No other site in the east has reached below freezing this month. Now those temps occur in 2 entirely different manners. One is under calm conditions allowing the valley temp to decouple from the airmass above, while Mt.Washington is occuring with the airmass in place at the more northerly latitude and is accompanied by strong winds!