Cool summer? Not!

Our cool July has many thinking that summer must be taking a vacation everywhere. That would be a short sighted assumption.

NOAA reports that June 2009 was the 2nd warmest on record globally. It was the warmest June ever for the world's oceans. Global temperatures in June were 1.12 degrees above the 20th century average. That is second to only June 2005.

Africa, Siberia, and southern Europe were among the areas much warmer than average in June. Central Asia, the Canadian Prairie Provinces, and the U.S. Northern Plains (that's Minnesota) were the areas cooler than average.

In the Twin Cities June was 0.7 degrees below average. July so far is running 3.5 degrees blow average for the month.

So why are we cooler than average in Minnesota? I can't pinpoint one easy meteorological answer. Jet stream patterns around the globe have been snaking wildly all over the place. Alaska has been warm in July, Minnesota has been cool. It's likely just meteorological chaos at work.

I've heard people say facetiously our cool summer weather must be "global warming" at work. It's too bad some people ignorantly say such things without any knowledge of the simple and easily accessible information to the contrary. A cool day or a cool month in Minnesota is weather, not climate. The 10 warmest years globally have all occurred since 1997. Our planet has not seen one cooler than average year in that time. Think about the odds of that for a moment.

PH