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US Sees Seasonably Cool September 2008Temperatures Generally Near Average but Precipitation Varies
After a summer that in many places was warmer and wetter than normal, September 2008 saw a return to more seasonable conditions, though California remained warm and dry.
The warm and dry weather in California is probably a leading cause of the region's continued battle with wildfires, several of which continued to burn well into October 2008. In the state, September 2008 ranked as the tenth warmest and the driest on record. Records have been kept nationally for 114 years. Fire issues were basically contained to the Golden State: NOAA reported that the rest of the country saw well below normal fire conditions. 155,040 acres were scorched, a half-million below the previous ten-year average. Overall, the average temperature in the US was 65.8 degrees according to the NOAA survey, a little less than a half degree above normal. This likely led to slightly less than normal energy usage, which NOAA said was 1.7 percent below the typical consumption for the month. Precipitation averaged 2.68 inches, .2 inches above average for the same period. Cold Grips South, While West Sees Warm WeatherAcross the south, September ranked as the tenth coldest on record, with the most pronounced cold across the south central states. Texas saw its tenth coldest, while Oklahoma saw its 11th coldest. Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, and New Mexico were also quite chilly. The west saw warmer conditions, which had persisted since July. In fact, for the period 2008 made the top five for the July-September period in both California and Nevada. Those two states plus Utah and Arizona remained warm in September. Also warm were the Great Lakes states and much of the Northeast, save for Pennsylvania and Maine which remained somewhat closer to normal. Tropical Storms Gustav, Hanna, and Ike Contribute to Wet WeatherAreas east of the Mississippi saw generally above normal rainfall, and in some cases much above normal. This was due to the three tropical systems that made landfall during the month. Gustav and Ike contributed to the above normal rainfall in the south central states and Great Lakes states, while Hanna drenched much of the Mid-Atlantic and into the Northeast. For Rhode Island and Arkansas, it was its second wettest, and Illinois its third wettest. Elsewhere, 11 other states saw Septembers that ranked among the top ten in terms of rainfall. This was not the case for the south however - most of the Southeast saw extremely dry conditions. It was the same story across the West. Besides California, Nevada saw its ninth driest September, and much of the rest of the west remained fairly dry. In both areas, drought conditions were already an issue: the lack of rain obviously did little to remedy the problem.
The copyright of the article US Sees Seasonably Cool September 2008 in Climatology is owned by Ed Oswald. Permission to republish US Sees Seasonably Cool September 2008 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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