Summer 2012 Summary

A very hot and somewhat dry Summer

Nobody who experienced this summer needs to be told that it was hot.  For the third summer in a row it was over a degree and a half warmer than average.  That heat was also very consistent with only 3 days that were more than 5 degrees colder than average.

The precipitation for the entire summer at 211.9 mm, although well below the average of 272.1 mm, just squeaked into the average range with a wet start to September.  However, the very wet ending masked what was quite a dry summer for most of the season.  The precipitation for July and August was less than half of the average for those months.

In the UW weather station poll it was the least popular summer since I started doing the poll back in 2008.  Typically, around 75% of respondents would say the summer was either great or good, but this year only 42% voted for these categories.

Summary for Summer 2012:
Maximum Temperature 34.0 °C
Minimum Temperature 5.4 °C
Average Daily High Temperature 26.2 °C (Long term average 24.3 °C)
Average Daily Low Temperature 14.1 °C  (Long term average 12.3 °C)
Total Precipitation 211.9 mm (Long term average 272.1 mm)

(Long term averages based on 1971-2000 data for the Waterloo Wellington Airport)

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Summer 2012 poll results

Just wanted a post that summarized the summer 2012 poll:

Great (Love the hot weather, would not have changed a thing) 26 (27%)

Good (Like the hot weather, but a few more breaks would have been nice) 20 (15%)

OK (Definitely needed some more rain and more cool days) 27 (28%)

Bad (I withered under the heat and dry weather) 20 (15%)

Terrible (Too much heat!) 16 (12%)

Summer 2012 poll

So what did you think of this long, hot summer we had?

Let the world know by voting in the University of Waterloo Weather Station Summer 2012 poll.

The poll is located at the top of the blog page: http://uwweatherstation.blogspot.ca/

August 2012 Summary

Yet another month that continues the hot and dry pattern

It was “only” 1.4 degrees warmer than average in August, making it the second “coldest” month this year (or at least the month that was second closest to the average).  We actually had 4 days in a row where the daily high temperature was lower than the average, albeit not by that much, but still that hasn’t happened since early June.

The 48.1 mm of precipitation made it the third wettest month of the year, however it was still well below the average of 87.0 mm.  It was actually decently wet for the first half of August, but then there was hardly anything for rest of the month.

The 402.9 mm of precipitation so far this year is still the second driest first 8 months of the year and much less than the average of 598.0 mm.

Summary for August 2012:
Maximum Temperature 32.7°C
Minimum Temperature 7.7°C
Average Daily High Temperature 26.2°C (Long term average 24.8°C)
Average Daily Low Temperature 14.1°C (Long term average 12.7°C)
Total Precipitation 48.1 mm (Long term average 87.5 mm)

(Long term averages based on 1971-2000 data for the Waterloo Wellington Airport)

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