Do you think the weather this summer has been extra soggy? If you said yes, the data says you are right.
What is meteorological summer?
I went back and looked over the numbers during the last three months. June 1 through Aug. 31 is known as "meteorological summer" and will be our window of time when referring to "summer." Meteorological seasons are based on average temperatures over a three-month period rather than using the Earth's position in relation to the sun. Also, keep in mind this is specific to Cleveland Hopkins Airport; there will, of course, be variables across the entire view area.
When it rains, it pours
Since June 1, there has only been one 90-degree day in Cleveland, but more notable is how WET it has been. Since June 1, or the start of meteorological summer, until Thursday (Aug. 24), Cleveland has received 17.03 inches of rain. That is nearly 7 inches above normal (6.79 inches, to be exact). That puts us in third place for the wettest summer on record. The wettest summer ever picked up 19.88 inches in 1972, and the second wettest summer was actually two years ago, with 18.81 inches.
Summer didn't start this way
If you recall, this summer started off very dry, but that swiftly changed. June ended up near average with 3.99 inches of rain. However, rain and storms increased during July, with 6.75 inches of rain, with 14 days of wet days (at least 0.01 inch of rain). There have been 12 wet days so far in August. We currently have 6.29 inches, which is 3.55 inches over a typical August.
2023 didn't start this way
Through the first 6 months of 2023, Cleveland's precipitation total was 16.94 inches. That means we have picked up more precipitation in half the time. And an interesting reminder — we ended the winter snow season on the other side of the spectrum. We got 22.7 inches of snow, which was the third least snowy season ever. It looks like we made up for lost time, or rather lost wet weather over the last three months.
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