Summer 2014 Weather Summary

On September 22, I set the alarm on my watch for 7:29 PM. That was the time that this miserable summer officially ended. It was very clear that this was going to rate as one of our worst in history. The only question was, where exactly would it rank on the list?


I have the answer to that question, but let me go off on a tangent first. Let's talk about the temperatures. This was our second hottest summer ever. Okay, so that doesn't factor in everything that the Washingtonian Weather Index looks at. Low temperatures were problematic this year. When we include both the highs and the lows and then convert them into scores for the weather index, we wind up with the second worst summer ever. That's not much of a change, but we are replacing 1967 with 2013 as the worst. This means that our two worst summers in terms of temperatures have occurred in the last two summers.

Summer Temperatures Over the Years
Rank	Year	Score		Rank	Year	Score		Rank	Year	Score
1	1955	76.82%		24	2000	67.12%		46	1989	63.17%
2	1954	76.01%		25	1969	66.69%		47	2008	63.15%
3	1948	73.02%		26	1982	65.95%		48	1996	63.08%
4	1953	72.84%		27	2010	65.91%		49	2012	62.59%
5	1952	72.23%		28	1988	65.86%		50	1979	62.30%
6	1949	71.88%		29	1985	65.79%		51	1991	62.07%
7	1957	71.83%		30	1984	65.75%		52	1977	61.93%
8	1964	71.39%		31	1972	65.49%		53	1961	61.53%
9	1956	71.25%		32	1968	65.35%		54	2007	61.49%
10	1980	71.07%		33	1986	65.23%		55	2003	60.92%
11	1951	70.64%		34	1971	65.19%		56	1992	60.85%
12	1950	70.46%		35	1978	65.13%		57	1958	60.83%
13	1962	70.21%		36	2002	64.97%		58	1995	60.69%
14	1960	69.61%		37	1976	64.35%		59	2006	60.66%
15	1966	69.52%		38	2005	64.02%		60	2004	59.99%
16	1959	69.38%		39	1965	63.99%		61	1998	59.28%
17	2001	68.91%		40	1975	63.99%		62	2009	58.90%
18	1993	68.62%		41	1974	63.87%		63	1990	58.52%
19	1999	68.13%		42	1981	63.80%		64	1994	58.26%
20	1973	67.98%		43	1997	63.62%		65	1967	55.01%
21	1970	67.77%		44	1987	63.34%		66	2014	53.67%
22	1963	67.72%		45	2011	63.33%		67	2013	52.48%

I would say that precipitation wasn't quite as bad as the temperatures, but this was still a problem. We seemed to have far too many dry days. Despite that, I believe we were actually above average for summer precipitation. This is because some of our few wet days were a lot wetter than we usually see this time of year. Overall, we were still positioned as the second worst summer ever. To make things more interesting, we only lost to 1967 (there's that hottest year by highs) by 0.04%. I was wondering if we had a shot at the worst ever. We were so close.

Summer Over the Years
Rank	Year	Score		Rank	Year	Score		Rank	Year	Score
1	1954	61.80%		24	1956	52.26%		46	2004	48.16%
2	1955	61.21%		25	1993	52.06%		47	1974	47.91%
3	1948	58.30%		26	1973	51.75%		48	2008	47.90%
4	1964	56.97%		27	2001	51.52%		49	2002	47.86%
5	1953	56.34%		28	1976	51.28%		50	2011	47.77%
6	1980	56.18%		29	1951	50.84%		51	1989	47.47%
7	1949	56.11%		30	1997	50.80%		52	1958	47.15%
8	1957	55.43%		31	1985	50.79%		53	1987	46.84%
9	1959	55.29%		32	1971	50.61%		54	1992	46.71%
10	1963	55.13%		33	1996	50.58%		55	2012	46.52%
11	1962	55.00%		34	2010	50.11%		56	1961	46.03%
12	1983	54.42%		35	1975	49.95%		57	1991	45.92%
13	1978	54.32%		36	2000	49.94%		58	2003	45.88%
14	1968	53.84%		37	1979	49.12%		59	1995	45.42%
15	1966	53.82%		38	1984	49.01%		60	2009	45.21%
16	1952	53.67%		39	1986	48.92%		61	2006	44.87%
17	1969	53.27%		40	1965	48.88%		62	1994	44.66%
18	1970	53.24%		41	2007	48.77%		63	1990	43.96%
19	1960	53.09%		42	1988	48.69%		64	1998	43.75%
20	1950	53.08%		43	1977	48.55%		65	2013	42.48%
21	1999	52.55%		44	2005	48.41%		66	2014	40.70%
22	1982	52.55%		45	1981	48.24%		67	1967	40.66%

For more information on how scores have been generated, visit my blog post at:

http://maritimeorca0.blogspot.com/2012/03/follow-up-weather-index-in-excel.html
Keep in mind that scores are based off of averages. These values are likely to shift a little over time.