While any one summer may be cooler or warmer than average, that average continues to get hotter as the climate warms. Over the past few decades, smaller features that could nudge a summer hotter or cooler than average are getting overwhelmed by the planetary warming signal.
People are also reading… Finding a cool summer requires going back to 1992 — the first full summer after the massive eruption of Mt. Pinatubo — the second largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century. Sending phenomenal amounts of ash, dust, and particulates into the stratosphere for more than a year, it managed to temporarily cool the planet by about one degree Fahrenheit during the following year.
Looking back several decades for historical analogies, the transition has often led to hotter and drier summers in the eastern half of the country. But if that transition does not happen as quickly in the next month or two, a hot and dry summer may not come to pass. Listen now and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | RSS Feed | SoundStack | All Of Our Podcasts
On top of that, the water in the Gulf of Mexico and central Atlantic Ocean each remain especially warm, also correlating with a hot summer east of the Mississippi River.