An August Review

As we now proceed deeper into the month of what is often some spectacular wx for the year, it is always good to look back at what we just endured...and that is August 2013. And remarkably, August had NO DAYS...NONE, where the max temp reached 90F!  In fact, on only 3 occasions did the mercury top out at 87F; the 27th, 30th, and 31st.  The lowest temp for the month was 53F on the 15th of the month.  Here is a climatogram of temps for KMDT.

I believe it is plainly evident that the bulk of the temp bars spent most of their time at or below normals with the notable exception of the past week.  In fact, while perusing the entire year, again, with the 2 exception2 of late Jan and early April, cool was the rule for most of 2013 in KMDT to this point.

As for precip, KMDT is running a few inches below the 30 year average to date.  Here is a quick graphic showing the accumulated precip for the calendar year to this point. It seems strange that we are running a deficit of rainfall, but the numbers don't lie!  KMDT had 14 days of measurable rainfall in August, but only 2 of the days had in excess of 0.50" of rain, the heaviest falling on the 28th where the airport received 0.92".  It's just that the torrid heat that often persists for spells over our summers just wasn't present this past August.

There was a very unique precipitation event not too far to our east however at the end of July in the City of Brotherly Love.  Look at the 8.02" at the end of July and the spike of accumulated precip that will not allow Philly to run a precip deficit this year!  A narrow band of intense thunderstorms trained right over the airport and voila, and incredible event is now forever recorded in the books at KPHL! Two and a half month's worth of rainfall in about 2 hours!  Unreal!

So while Philly is running a huge surplus, we are running a 3" annual shortfall in precip!  Clearly, though, the temps were more in line with KMDT as Philly also had a cool August.  In fact, both KPHL and KMDT ran ~1.5F below the 30 year average for the month of August. Had it not been for the anomalous heat the last week of August, a much larger deficit would've been achieved for August. I'm not sure why I don't see the GW crowd touting that fact?!?

So what does September hold in store?  The CFS v2 suggests a warm west especially up into O Canada, and cooler east, again especially up in the province of Quebec. In these parts, we should see a progressive pattern meaning swings in temps from below norms at times to above norms.  Statistically, it should all balance out to very much near the 30 year average by month's end...

And speaking of August, I'll leave you with what I believe might be the most famous cut off of Eric Clapton's 10th studio album released in 1986 titled August.  He and Phil Collins collaborated to produce this number one hit that many will recognize as being in the Tom Cruise-Paul Newman film, The Color of Money.  Enjoy this "August Flashback"...and enjoy your mid-week spell of spectacular wx!

Smitty

AA:  August was cooler than normal and believe it or not slightly drier than normal! And August was a good LP released in the mid 80s by one of my favs, EC!