A taste of summer heat, and some dry days, on the way

My wife and I will be celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary in Italy. We got married in late July but will delay our trip until fall, when temperatures cool and crowds thin out a bit. Rome in late July is an overheated, overcrowded gong show.

With only one 90-degree day so far in 2024, many are wondering what happened to NOAA’s forecast of a hotter summer. Most of the U.S. has been baking this summer (six days in a row above 105 degrees in Boise, Idaho, and four days in a row above 101 in Washington, D.C.). We’ve been too wet to be hot. With a heat wave stalled to our south, persistent storms have tracked across Minnesota, keeping many days 10 to 20 degrees cooler than they would have been otherwise. Better than a hot, smoky drought.

Don’t write off summer heat just yet. In fact, the mercury may hit or exceed 90 three to five times from Friday into next week.

Breaking news: I see dry weather from Wednesday thru Saturday, possibly Sunday. Please try to suspend your disbelief.

Since April 1 we’ve picked up nearly four times as much rain than in all of 2023.