Today was National Doughnut Day, which I’m sure you heard about. Did you know that June 1st also marks the beginning of meteorological summer? See the pic at the top of this blog post, which shows the difference between meteorological summer and astronomical summer. No, today isn’t the summer solstice. That isn’t until the 21st of June, also the longest day of the year (most amount of daylight). For weather watchers/records though, summer starts today – tracking the three warmest months of the year: June, July and August. I had a great question on social media today, “Bri, isn’t September warmer than June??” Not according to 30-year climatological averages. The avg. temp of both June (67.7) and Sept (64.9) is fairly close, but June is still “warmer.”
Today also kicks off the 2018 Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1st – November 30th. We’ve already seen our first named storm of the season, which was Alberto. Now we wait a while until tropical activity really gets cranking (at least, according to past seasons). This graphic shows that the greatest increase in tropical activity happens from the end of July through the middle of Sept, with the peak somewhere around Sept. 10th. The reason why is because that’s when sea surface temps are typically at the warmest – which is the fuel for tropical storms/hurricanes. It’s also when Caribbean vacations and cruises are the cheapest… but you could be taking a gamble!
Here are the other tropical cyclone names for this season:
| Alberto Beryl Chris Debby Ernesto Florence Gordon Helene Isaac Joyce Kirk Leslie Michael Nadine Oscar Patty Rafael Sara Tony Valerie William |
Alright so we have #NationalDonutDay, #meteorologicalsummer, #hurricaneseason… and um, oh yeah! You probably want the forecast. Anyone wondering why it’s so humid and when we’ll “finally get some relief?” You’re not alone. That seems to be the big question of the day with dEWpoints (I emphasize the “ew” part) in the low 70s for many today. Seems like in the past few weeks I’ve gotten a lot of complaints about dewpoints in the low to mid 60s… My response? “Just wait… it gets worse.” Today, it got worse. Dewp’s in the low to mid 70s is about as bad as it gets here in New England through the summer… and we have a lot of summer to go. We’ll be very mild and muggy overnight (not the best night to sleep with the window open) – and start tomorrow in the upper 60s to near 70. Humidity will be falling through tomorrow afternoon for a much more comfortable Saturday evening.
A Dense Fog Advisory has been issued for the South Coast through 10am tomorrow:
Highs tomorrow are between 70 (at the coast) and 80 (inland). There’s a 30% chance of a shower tomorrow – but it will be quick and not everyone gets this wet weather. Sunday is dry, less humid, more sunshine, with highs in the 60s.
Happy meteorological summer! (and happy donut day) – Breezy