As you remember, the mild winter turned into warm and at times hot spring & summer. By the numbers here we go. Starting first with the monthly average. All of the following numbers are from the Detroit Metro Airport site.
Jan 2012 +5.1
Feb 2012 +4.5
Mar 2012 +13.5
Apr 2012 +0.2
May 2012 +5.6
June 2012 +2.9
July 2012 (As of 7/9/12) +8.2
Our last below average month you ask? April 2011 when we ended up -0.8 from avg. As of May of 2012 we have been on the plus side of things. 13 months above average.
Two things that stick out like a sore thumb to me and I think were the main causes to our record half year warmth were the two heat waves that we have had in 2012. One that we just got out of ending July 7th. And the other heat wave you ask? Have to back to March of 2012. Which is why March ended up being +13.5 degrees above average.
Here is the March climate break down, circled in the pink is when our heat wave was which included nine days above 70 and three days above 80. Causing the spring blooms to take off! And unfortunately suffered at the end of the month as temperatures went back to the freezing mark.
March 2012
Then our latest heat wave that brought temps near or over 100 twice. It started June 27th and ended July 7th. Following are the June and July temperature charts. Circled in the pink is the two June heat waves. July explains for itself.
June 2012
July 2012
It seems like record heat and drought go hand and hand and that is what we have in the Great Lakes. Parts of the southern Great Lakes are in an extreme drought. The good thing though, the storms that brought the severe weather and caused the power outages last week did bring some rain to the hardest hit drought areas. Below is the drought monitor from the Great Lakes/Midwest.
Whats ahead? Well for those of you who like cooler weather you will like the next 48 hours. After that I think we start trending back to hotter weather towards the weekend with highs in the 90s.
