TheClimateChanger

Roughly half way through meteorological fall, and this has been the warmest such stretch on record by a long shot (almost a degree above 1881). This coming on the heels of one of the hottest summers on record. Not too surprising to see Lake Erie water temperatures setting daily record highs. Other recent warm falls on the top ten list include 2007, 2016, 2017, and 2018. It probably doesn't "feel" as warm as it actually is, because of how many recent years show up. 4 of the top 8 warmest early fall periods have occurred in the last six years.

I'm probably dating myself with that reference to 1998. A lot of you probably weren't even alive yet. But it was like a nonstop media obsession about the so-called Super El Nino, and how warm it was with wild weather across the globe. Even SNL was doing skits on it.

Very impressive warmth this year in the eastern Great Lakes region. These graphics show rankings of temperatures for the period January 1-October 6 at select locations. What I find remarkable is back in 1998, it was just wall to wall coverage of the anomalous warmth which was at the time blamed on a "Super El Nino." Does anyone else find it weird that 20 years later, we are consistently seeing annual temperatures approach and exceed this levels year after year and there's no media coverage whatsoever? It's just like it became the "new normal" or something. Very weird. Buffalo (Tied 2nd warmest, out of 148 years of data): Erie (3rd warmest, out of 148 years of data): Syracuse (5th warmest, out of 119 years of data): Edit: Also impressive to see 2020 at #4, 7 and 6 respectively across the three sites. This has to be approaching the warmest 2-year period on record.

Some hot weather stats from around the region: Second warmest summer on record at Erie Seventh warmest summer on record at Morgantown Eighth warmest summer on record at Wheeling (a lot of missing data here from 1954-1997, but this was a period of mostly mild summers - only 1988, 1991 and 1995 are really candidates to be on this list, maybe 1973, 1983, 1987). Also, warmest on record at Dubois (tying last year) but records only go back to 1963, as there is no station thread for this site:

I didn't include CLE because of apparent sensor issues over the past couple of years. CLE has been running about 1-1.5F cooler, relative to average, than the other first-order climate sites in CLE's forecast office. Based on climatological normals, CLE should be the second warmest site in the summer (TOL being first warmest) and the warmest in the winter. Yet, inexplicably, it's been reporting the second coldest temperatures in the WFO (only YNG cooler). So it would appear that the temperature sensor is currently reading too low. Location Departure Mean Temperature Normal Mean Temp Cleveland +1.8F 72.2F 70.4F Erie +4.5F 72.7F 68.2F Toledo +2.5F 74.1F 71.6F Mansfield +4.2F 73.2F 69.0F Akron/Canton +2.9F 72.8F 69.9F Youngstown +3.1F 70.6F 67.5F Location Departure Mean Temperature Normal Mean Temp Cleveland -1.8F 72.7F 74.5F Erie -0.4F 72.3F 72.7F Toledo +0.0F 75.4F 75.4F Mansfield +1.1F 73.7F 72.6F Akron/Canton -0.7F 73.2F 73.9F Youngstown -0.4F 71.1F 71.5F Location Departure Mean Temperature Normal Mean Temp Cleveland +1.8F 74.8F 73.0F Erie +3.8F 75.3F 71.6F Toledo +3.2F 76.7F 73.5F Mansfield +4.7F 75.7F 71.0F Akron/Canton +3.6F 75.9F 72.3F Youngstown +3.6F 73.5F 69.9F Regardless, since you asked, it was the 13th warmest summer in Cleveland, tied with 2011, 2002, and 1934. A sensor error of a degree or so can make a huge difference in the summer rankings since there's not that much variance in the temperature records compared to other seasons. Another degree would have put it closer in line to surrounding sites (TOL, MFD, CAK and ERI), all of which recorded top three hottest summers. I would surmise that, if it didn't feel too hot, it was likely due to how many recent years are on this list (2016, 2010, 2005, 2018, 2012, 2017, 2021, 2011, 2002, 2019).

Spartman Special in Dayton this summer. Tied 2007 for 10th warmest August, plus 10 90+ days during the month. 14th warmest summer on record and, more importantly, the warmest since 1995 and third warmest on record at the airport (surpassed only by 1995 and 1988). Most of those early years should be tossed from the downtown rooftop station. August Summer

Similar story in Mansfield. Third warmest August, and the #1 warmest summer on record (edging out the scorching summer of 2020, and the Dust Bowl era summer of 1934). August Summer

Third warmest August, and third warmest summer on record at Akron/Canton. The all-time warmest summers occurred "way back" in 2016 and 2020, narrowly edging out this past summer. Also the top 4 warmest summers there have occurred in the past six years (2016, 2018, 2020, and 2021). August Summer

Yet another scorcher of a summer. Third warmest August, second warmest summer on record at Toledo (surpassing last year's mark): August 2021 Summer 2021