Below Average Temperatures the Norm in '09
We’re only a week away from August, yet it seems like we’re still waiting for the summer weather to show up. Since we started warming up in the spring, temperatures have, more often than not, remained below average. July is typically the warmest time of year, when daytime highs range between the upper 70’s and the low 80’s and overnight lows are generally in the 50’s. Those “normal temperatures” we compare everything to, by the way, come from an average of temperatures over the past 30 years.
This table, courtesy of the National Weather Service, shows just how often we’ve exceeded our average high temperatures.
Location | # of Days High Temperature at or above Normal May 1st - July 21st | Percentage |
Sault Sainte Marie | 27/82 days | 33% |
Gaylord | 24/82 days | 29% |
Alpena | 34/82 days | 41% |
Traverse City | 30/82 days | 37% |
Houghton Lake | 30/82 days | 37% |
It’s hard to remember those warmer-than-average days when it’s 60 and raining in July, but they’ve happened. According to the National Weather Service, in many of the cases shown above, temperatures barely exceeded average.
We’ve also had a considerable number of cold mornings. (I remember our weather watcher, Bob in Raber, reporting a low of 36 degrees one day at the beginning of July!)
Location | # of Days Low Temperature at or below Normal May 1st - July 21st | Percentage |
Sault Sainte Marie | 51/82 days | 62% |
Gaylord | 52/82 days | 63% |
Alpena | 55/82 days | 67% |
Traverse City | 50/82 days | 61% |
Houghton Lake | 51/82 days | 62% |
This National Weather Service table shows that most of our mornings since May have been cooler than what we should expect, in some cases by 15 to 20 degrees! While we’ve set a number of low temperature records in this time period, there has only been one day of record heat this summer so far.
