We know it’s been hot! What we may not realize is just how hot it’s actually been this season. According to a post from weatherunderground.com, May brought sweeps of high temperatures to many parts of the Middle East in Europe, in some cases breaking heat records and even tying with the highest reliably recorded temperature on the planet. This May was the third warmest May on record, overall. It has also been reported that the first six months of this year are the second warmest first half of the year since record keeping began in 1880. These six months have been .16 degrees warmer than the 20th century average. 2016 still holds the record of having the hottest six months by less than a degree and this year is on track to be the second-warmest year on record, behind 2016.
As far as major weather events, 2017 is falling within range of what is normal for this point in the year. For the remainder of 2017, it is predicted that we will have a more active hurricane season than average, with 3 major storms predicted. June is living up to this prediction, with Arlene already making landfall and storms Bret and Cindy are expected to be named this week.
What about Winston-Salem? Fortunately, current storm activity is in the Gulf and the Caribbean,so we don’t have much to be concerned with going in to the weekend. However, higher risks during hurricane season means there’s always the possibility we’ll see some damage. So far, we are above average for rainfall in June and have already surpassed average rainfall for the entire month. Temperatures have been above average, but that will likely taper off in the next ten days. As for May, rainfall was nearly triple the average for the month. Temperatures were consistently above average, but not nearly as record-setting as what was seen in Europe and the Middle East. The remainder of the season is still up in the air (no pun intended), but we’ll keep an eye out for future climate milestones!
Sources:
https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/historic-heat-wave-sweeps-asia-middle-east-and-europe
https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/may-2017-top-three-warm-may-globally
Photo Credit: From our Pinterest board “Sunflowers”
larmorelandscape 