Warm, dry summers often followed by reduced winter snow
August’s close Wednesday night brings Meteorological Summer, 2005 to an end. The season featured three consecutive months of warmer than normal temperatures and pitifully little rainfall. The 74.7° average temperature over the period which began June 1 is 3.1° warmer than the long term average and 6.1° above the same period a year ago. Rainfall was woefully limited. O’Hare’s 5.18” ranks third driest of the 135 years for which records exist. In the city, Midway Airport’s 4.58” is the driest since measurements began at the South Side location in 1928. The previous driest meteorological summer there occured in 1991 when just 4.97” fell.
Our warm, dry summer may have some implications in the months ahead. Six of seven previous years with similar trends in temperature and precipitation have been followed by less than average snowfall in the cold months which follow.