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Summer? Are You There?

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There's one major downside to a hot May - it sets expectations high for June. Warm weather lovers were set up to be disappointed if we even got an 'average' June, let alone a cold one. And yes indeed has it been chilly to kick off Meteorological summer. Many of you have been sending in photos of your wood stove cranking or some logs crackling in the fireplace over the last several nights - Martha's Vineyard even dropped into the mid-30s Thursday morning! It's still early in the month but here's a look at where we stand.

What's most amazing is that parts of the area were in a legitimate heat wave this time last week. The Merrimack Valley and southern NH had 3 straight days of 90+ heat. Now? Boston hasn't even hit 60F since Sunday! That's quite a flip-flop. The 'average temp' - which factors in highs and lows on each given day, is 50F through the first 4 days. That handily puts it on top for the coldest start to June on record, eclipsing the 2nd place year of 1945 (52.5F through the first four days). That year gives us hope though - not a single day failed to reach 70 degrees after June 7th. Plenty of time to recover with more westerly wind days instead of easterly flow regimes.

1945

More impressive were our days mired in the 40s on Monday and Tuesday. Think of it this way - from 1872 to 2014 (142 years), only one day had ever failed to reach 50 degrees in Boston. Or viewed differently, 0.02% of June days on record had failed to hit 50F. Now we've had two in just one year! Both set daily record lows, and tied the all-time coldest June highs ever recorded in the city. On the plus side, the cool and wet weather helped to recharge a dry landscape, so at least we have that.

coldjune

So what would it take to keep this kind of pace going, and how cold would it have to be to see yet another record month? Well the coldest June on the books in Boston was set in 1903, with an average monthly temp of 59.8F. Keep in mind that as June goes on, averages move up and so typically the highs and lows will trend warmer toward the back half of the month. Here's what the June of 1903 looked like:

1903

It didn't start out as cold, but talk about a dismal mid-month stretch! Must have been quite a blocked-up weather pattern in place with loads of east wind during that time frame. To compete with that June, we'd need quite a few more very chilly days. I don't think Boston will hit 70F again until Tuesday, so we're staying well below average into the start of next week. But just a week of 80s would put a huge dent in our cold start.

A caveat that's been brought up on the blog before, but it's also interesting to note, is that the Top 5 coldest Junes in Boston are all before the record keeping moved to Logan Airport (1936). It goes 1903, 1881, 1897, 1916, and 1886. A lot of this likely has to do with the previous site being removed from the water, and so overnight lows were colder than they are now (plus the urban growth factor, which  helps harbor heat in the city more than it used to). It's always fascinating when we challenge cold records from before the Logan move...so we'll see how things pan out over the rest of the month.

 

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