TheClimateChanger

2012 saw a similar pattern to those years:

Made it up to 91F today at PIT (so far). 5th day at or above 90F in the last 6 days (only exception, 89F on Sunday).

I'm guessing the clouds from which it was falling were blocked by terrain from the observer's view point? The clouds may have dissipated or moved out of view while the snow was still drifting to the ground, I suppose.

Wow! Scorcher today in Chester County, even in these carefully curated cool microclimates. That's a big pet peeve of mine... why spend all of this money on a "mesonet" and then place all of the equipment on farms or in parks, rather than in the communities where people live and work.

Coming on the heels of the infamous "Hard Winter" of 1880-1881, snow in September... folks must have really been battening down the hatches for a brutal winter. Only to have the rugged completely pulled out from under them. The Long Winter of 1880/81 in: Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society Volume 101 Issue 6 (2020) Hard Winter of 1880–81 - Wikipedia

One thing that's interesting about 1881, September was blazing hot in the east, but there was a bunch of snow in the west. Flurries in St. Vincent and Moorhead, Minnesota on the 4th - yes, just 4 days out of August! A swath of 4-6 inches of snow from Iowa to Minnesota on the 16th. Cheyenne, Wyoming even performed the remarkable feat of a 15-minute snow shower from a cloudless sky on the 29th. It was even so cold in Texas and Oklahoma (then known as Indian Territory) that a ton of cattle died. This is unthinkable in September. More on that outrageous snow storm from September 16, 1881: Snow in September? It’s happened before | Schnack's Weather Blog | kwwl.com Sept16Snow.pdf

Any thoughts on what went wrong to keep the historic heat away? Looking at the overall rankings (projected through the end of the month), certainly very high compared to the entire period of record. But, in the year 2025, I wouldn't call this historic. If this were 2000, maybe. But looking under the hood, even the very highly ranked sites are only running in line with recent years... E.g., Burlington is forecast to finish 6th since 1884, yet it's only the 5th hottest July in the last 7 years, leading me to believe that, in the current regime, it was actually a rather cool July?

Newark is on a bay. But I'm talking about Syracuse, Albany, Burlington, Vermont, and Scranton, Pennsylvania, not the midwest. Annual maximum has trended up at all of those locations since 1990, as has number of 90+ days (by a significant margin). And that's despite any bias that may have been occasioned by the use of the HO-83 at the beginning of this period. You'll note most sites show a big dropoff in 90F days around 1996 with the installation of ASOS, but have since trended continuously upwards. Annual Maximum: 90+ Days:

I think it was localized to the urban heat island. Inland areas weren't that hot.

Those were pretty hot years, but not close to recent years in most places in the eastern US. Also, the first three were unequivocally inflated at the first-order sites due to the defective HO-83 thermometer commonly in use during that era.

The funny thing we were apparently in 7th place yesterday and, despite, blazing heat, dropped a spot. Summer to date nearly 4F above norms... using 1990s-era normals, we'd probably be running a ridiculously insane 5F+ above for the summer.

Not much talk about it, but we are well within striking distance of a RECORD-BREAKING hot summer nationally. Should be around +2.4 to 2.5 for June & July. The record for JJA is around +2.6F, set in 1936 & 2021. A hot August could push us over the top. Just incredible stuff. I remember growing up in the 1990s, and those heat records for 1934 & 1936 just seemed completely unattainable. Not even 1988 or 1995 could come close. Then, 2012 happened and it was just like one domino after another falling. By around 2040, I'd reckon every single summer will be hotter than 1936, and a hot summer could be something similar to what @csnavywxhas posited.

Wow! Up to 8th place for the summer to date, hottest since 1934 (observations taken downtown). Certainly going to be climbing up this list the next couple of days before cooler temperatures return by Thursday.

Extreme volcanic venting in the north Pacific and all over the oceans! This is wild, you guys!

It's just summer... in the 2020s, anyways. Actually, only 4th warmest of past 6 years so this is probably a relatively cool summer for Harrisburg in this era.

ABSOLUTELY LOVE that setup!

Yesterday was the 5th record high minimum this month at Elkins, West Virginia (71F). This morning's low of 69F will also tie the record high minimum, so that will increase to 6 daily record high minima this month there! Unreal.

Morning thoughts:

000SXUS73 KGRR 282129RERMKGRECORD EVENT REPORTNATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN0525 PM EDT MON JUL 28 2025...RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE SET AT MUSKEGON MI...A RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE OF 91 DEGREES WAS SET AT MUSKEGON MI TODAY. THIS TIES THE OLD RECORD OF 91 DEGREES SET IN 1916 AND 1941.$$

Called it decades ago. Official response: deny, deny, downplay, inaction - "oh actually it is warming, but we can solve it by blocking out 5% of the sun." Oh, to top it off, we won't even bother telling the peasants! Wouldn't want the residents of Winnipeg, Yellow Knife or Fairbanks getting uppity about the loss of their precious sunlight.

Well, that doesn't bother me as much as lying or pretending it's not happening. Truthfully, I'm more vested in this from a scientific perspective than any political angle. I think you might have trouble convincing the residents of New Florida (i.e., the Upper Peninsula of Michigan) in 2400 AD/CE, that they were better off with 300" of snow each winter and subzero temperatures. Or the Megalopolis of Milwaukee, on the new North American Riviera, palm trees gently blowing in the breeze. Remember these places were under thousands of feet of glacial ice just 15,000 years ago! Oh, the irony of even having "Great Lakes" in a new hothouse earth. Carved from ice just 14,000 years ago. They shouldn't even exist in that paradigm!

It would be comical reading the Bastardi spin/delusion and obsession with highlighting a few cold areas, if it wasn't such a disservice to his followers. Anyways, in the real world, a top 10 hottest summer nationally is pretty much a lock, with another top 5 finish looking likely. And we are well within striking distance of making a run at the record hot summers on 1936 & 2021. But I'm sure the media will make it so we hear another 20 times about how it's a "record cold" summer in the San Francisco Bay area (it's actually not, lol).

With the ongoing heat, it wouldn't surprise me if the final tally comes in even higher. Climate Reanalyzer has 1936 & 2021 tied at +2.6F for JJA, followed by 2022 & 2024 at +2.5F. We should be around +2.4-2.5 for June & July. A hot August could get us to #1 - just imagine the meltdowns from some of these unhinged commenters on social media. The response to Tampa's all-time record high was just ridiculous. Imagine, a new national record.

JB posted this to X on Friday, so a little old. Only runs through the evening of the 23rd, but I don't have access to this real-time PRISM data - at least in a format that gives an estimated anomaly for the CONUS. At that time, we were running about 1.29F above the 1991-2020 mean, according to the PRISM analysis. Unfortunately, I'm having some trouble loading NCEI's Climate at a Glance this morning, so I don't have the exact numbers, but I think that would be close to 2.1F above the 1901-2000 average. So that would be around 10th/11th warmest July. Pretty much a statistical tie with the last two Julys.