By Northern News Now meteorologist Dave Anderson
42 years later, I still wake up in a sweat every now and then because I dreamed I wasn’t ready for a chemistry exam at VCC. Then I realized I’m now the guy who gives science exams. My LSC Center for Advanced Aviation students just took their meteorology finals. Now, let’s give nature its midterm for 2024 so far.
Precipitation has come back so well that we are now running a rain surplus rather than a drought. Temperature trends have varied from normal in the following amounts: January plus 5.9 degrees, February plus 11.9 degrees, March plus 3.4 degrees, April plus 2.1 degrees and May around plus 1.3 degrees. That averages to 2024 being 4.9 degrees warmer than normal. That is not within the bounds of normal climate variability. The prima facie culprit is El Nino, but more advanced meteorologists than me are working to see if anthropogenic global warming has a hand in that.
The La Nina effect is taking over and that has a hand in dropping the level of “warmer than normalness” a few degrees every month for the last few months. There is a good chance then, that June will come up dead normal for both temperature and precipitation.
June 1 to 10 could be rainy and stormy while warming up, the 11th to 19th will have a cool and showery period, the 20th to 26th looks warm and rainy, and the 27th to 30th should be sunny and cool. The rest of the summer forecast hints at a hot and dry July that will be followed by a cool and wet August.
