It's Official: Summer 2011 Was Abnormally Hot and Stormy
It was the hottest of times, it was the wettest of times... Summer 2011 has been full of surprises. The National Weather Service statistics are in, and they prove what we all knew: Chicago's summer was hot and rainy. A total of 19.08 inches of precipitation fell during June, July and August, which is seven inches above average for the area. And more than half of that fell in July, which broke a July rainfall record that had stood since 1889. The Tribune reports this summer was the third wettest on record since 1871. We wish there were some statistics available on how many lightning strikes happened. Surely that number would be above average.
Temperatures were higher than any summer on the books since 1981. The average high temperature was 83.4 degrees -- 1.5 more than the average -- and the average low was 64.5 -- 2.8 degrees above average., a significant 2.2 degrees above an average Chicago summer.
Hold onto your umbrellas, folks. We all know the real test of a Chicagoan's patience comes in the wintertime.
