, and in the southern hemisphere winter begins. While our weather here certainly heats up in June, the hottest temperatures are usually found in August and September. The lag in air temperature behind the solar intensity peak is due to the use of much of the Spring solar energy to melt snow and ice, heat land surfaces and warm waters from their winter chill. In continental areas such as the Canadian Prairie Provinces and American Plains States, annual temperature cycle peaks from late July to early August, whereas in the Pacific Northwest, the warmest stretch of days annually occurs from late August to early September. That extra month is required to heat the cold Pacific waters offshore.
We consider “meteorological” summer as June, July, and August. But we always caution folks we can indeed have sizzling weather here in September. In fact, Alabama’s hottest temperature was recorded on September 5, 1925, when the mercury soared to 112 degrees at Centreville. Birmingham’s hottest temperature on record is 107 degrees, measured on July 29, 1930.
What will the summer of 2005 bring? The long range computer models still show no sign of any runaway heat in coming weeks; in fact it looks like yesterday and today could very well be the hottest days during June. Best guess now is that both temperatures and rainfall will be near normal. Of course, only time will tell!
moving through, but coverage should be quite limited and most places will stay dry.