Massachusetts Just Had Its Hottest Summer On Record, Climate Report Says
BOSTON (CBS) -- Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Arizona had their hottest meteorological summers on record, according to a new climate report. NOAA said that the contiguous United States experienced its fourth-hottest summer between June and August, and third-warmest month of August.
The average temperature in Massachusetts over those three months was 71.4 degrees. WBZ-TV chief meteorologist Eric Fisher noted that Providence saw its hottest summer on record, Hartford tied its record and Worcester saw its second-hottest.
"Record heat impacted many locations across the western U.S., Southeast and Northeast," the report stated.
Locally we have Blue Hill Observatory, the longest continuously operated climate site in North America. It's the best possible location to track changes because it has never moved (as opposed to record keeping in Boston, Worcester, Hartford, etc) and is perched atop a hill away from the city and surrounded by forest. This makes it less susceptible to inconsistencies.
Data there showed the 6th warmest August on record and 3rd warmest summer. The hottest summer on record at Blue Hill Observatory was in 2016, with 2nd in 2010 and 4th in 2018. Needless to say, the trend is steadily moving toward warmer summers as the climate overall warms. But it's not just summer as the graphic below shows. The past 10 years have given us the warmest spring, summer, fall, winter and year along with numerous other "Top 10" finishes. As for individual months, there have been 40 landing in the Top 10 warmest but only 1 in the Top 10 coldest (February 2015, which we all remember quite vividly).
Another 11 states had a top-5 hottest summer, according to NOAA, and no state reported a below-average summer when it came to temperature.
