This summer was definitely a warm one across central New York.
What You Need To Know
- This was one of the warmest summers on record in Syracuse
- The summer as a whole was almost four degrees warmer than average
- Long stretches of persistent warmth rather than individual extremes were the primary factor
Just how warm has it been, you ask?
In Syracuse, our earliest 90 degree-day this year occurred about three weeks earlier than average. We saw more than twice the average amount of 90+ degree days in total (now up to 21 for the year), and tied the record for longest stretch of 80+ degree days.
That’s not where the warm weather story of summer 2020 ends, though.
The mean daily high temperature was 84.1 and the mean daily low temperature was 62.2. Compare these numbers to the average daily high and low, which are 79.7 and 58.9 respectively.
These daily temperature readings for June, July, and August led to an average overall temperature for this summer of 73.2 degrees.
As such, this summer is now in the record books as being tied for the third-warmest along with summer 1955.
Warmest Summers in Syracuse
| Year |
Average Temperature |
| 2005 |
73.7 degrees |
| 1949 |
73.6 degrees |
| 2020 |
73.2 degrees |
| 1955 |
73.2 degrees |
| 2012 |
72.7 degrees |
| |
|
What you’ll notice is that three of the top five warmest summers have occurred within the last 15 years here in Syracuse. This, in addition to the frequency of 90-degree days and overall increase in summer warmth over the past several decades, are signs of a changing and warming climate.
What is so amazing about this summer’s warmth is that we made it into the top five warmest without reaching a record high once, and without hitting 100 degrees a single time.
As we look ahead to cooler days in the near future, along with the dreaded (for some) s-word, at least we have plenty of warm memories to last us the next few months, right?
