Meteorological seasons explainer

Meteorological fall started on Sunday, September 1st and meteorological seasons always start on the first of the month, those months being March, June, September, and December. Now the starts of the astronomical seasons are also in those months, but the problem the meteorologists have is that the starts of the season are deep inside these months, usually on or around the 21st or 22nd. The reason we have meteorological seasons is for data sorting purposes. The typical astronomical season can range from 89 to 93 days, while if you follow the calendar, you’re only likely to see variations of 90-92 days. This makes seasonal averages easier to compare and seasonal statistics are also easier to create since we already track monthly statistics.

Overall, meteorological summer was warmer than average but had a fairly normal average amount of rainfall. June saw 9 90-degree days, and August saw 7, with July not seeing any. With those statistics it makes sense that June, on average, was about 3.5 degrees warmer than usual, July was only .1 degree higher than normal, and August was almost 2.5 degrees warmer than usual. We did have a fairly dry August, about 1.8 inches less rainfall than we normally see, with June and July seeing slightly higher than average precipitation, about .8 inches over. We are expecting a cooler start to meteorological fall, and the precipitation outlooks seems to be on the drier side, so we could see a dip into the drought as we make our way through the first week of September.