Cool summer shouldn't affect winter
Jared Young
Issue date: 9/10/09 Section: News
Long-sleeved summer days left many fearing a harsh winter, but the past few months will have no bearing on future weather conditions.
This summer's high temperature averaged 3.1 degrees below normal, the eighth coolest summer on record, according to the National Weather Service out of Pleasant Hill, Mo.
Warning Coordination Meteorologist Andy Bailey said the noticeably cool weather this summer is of little concern.
"The changes were significant," Bailey said. "However, everything was in the realm of the natural variability cycle. It's not that unusual to have periods like this where you're well above or below normal for a three-month period."
Although the Midwest was not the only area of the world that experienced abnormal weather conditions, Bailey said that globally, everything is just as it was before.
"On average across the globe, the temperature was fairly normal," Bailey said. "It wasn't unusually hot or cold."
The climate change this summer also is not an abnormal occurrence. Bailey said that when one area is affected one way, another area is affected in the opposite way.
"Whenever we're cold in this part of the world, someplace else is unusually warm," Bailey said. "So as we go forward into the fall and winter months, this really doesn't mean anything as far as how warm or cold we may be."
Bailey said there are ways of predicting which areas of the world will experience warmer or cooler temperatures. This is done by observing the jet stream.
"It tends to occur wherever the upper level pattern sets up," Bailey said. "Generally, whenever the jet stream stays south of us in the summer time, we tend to be cool. That's what happened this past year."
Signs of weather abnormalities are recognized by meteorologists like Bailey, but the reasoning behind it, Bailey said, is still unknown.
"To us, it's random," Bailey said. "There's a reason behind it, but it's something so complex that we don't fully understand. Everything happens for a reason."
This summer's high temperature averaged 3.1 degrees below normal, the eighth coolest summer on record, according to the National Weather Service out of Pleasant Hill, Mo.
Warning Coordination Meteorologist Andy Bailey said the noticeably cool weather this summer is of little concern.
"The changes were significant," Bailey said. "However, everything was in the realm of the natural variability cycle. It's not that unusual to have periods like this where you're well above or below normal for a three-month period."
Although the Midwest was not the only area of the world that experienced abnormal weather conditions, Bailey said that globally, everything is just as it was before.
"On average across the globe, the temperature was fairly normal," Bailey said. "It wasn't unusually hot or cold."
The climate change this summer also is not an abnormal occurrence. Bailey said that when one area is affected one way, another area is affected in the opposite way.
"Whenever we're cold in this part of the world, someplace else is unusually warm," Bailey said. "So as we go forward into the fall and winter months, this really doesn't mean anything as far as how warm or cold we may be."
Bailey said there are ways of predicting which areas of the world will experience warmer or cooler temperatures. This is done by observing the jet stream.
"It tends to occur wherever the upper level pattern sets up," Bailey said. "Generally, whenever the jet stream stays south of us in the summer time, we tend to be cool. That's what happened this past year."
Signs of weather abnormalities are recognized by meteorologists like Bailey, but the reasoning behind it, Bailey said, is still unknown.
"To us, it's random," Bailey said. "There's a reason behind it, but it's something so complex that we don't fully understand. Everything happens for a reason."
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