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From brisk nights dipping near 40 degrees in early June, to the battering of thunderstorms driven by the humidity of July and the 'dog days' of August, meteorological summer of 2021 in Greater Williamsport was one for the record books.
Meteorological summer covers June 1 through Aug. 31, and it is what forecasters go by as the summer as opposed to astronomical summer, which started on June 21 and continues through until Sept. 22.
The three months the city and region just experienced set some records, said Michael Colbert, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in State College.
Not a dry heat
While the American West and Southwest were baking in record heat waves, Williamsport and areas in Lycoming County and the vicinity in northcentral Pennsylvania experienced the tenth warmest summer on record and the seventh warmest August since the National Weather Service became collecting weather data, Colbert said.
"The seventh warmest August in history," Colbert said during the telephone interview. As he researched the climate data obtained he noticed the other frequent visitor -- rain.
By the end of August the city experienced close to 14 inches of rainfall since June 1, he said.
As of Aug. 26, 13.5 inches of rain was measured at the Williamsport Regional Airport.
"That's 1 1/2 inches above normal," Colbert said.
Compared to last year, the precipitation in the city had doubled.
"We had a drought last year with only 7.6 inches of rain recorded by the end of August," he said.
Of course, it was officially meteorological fall on Sept. 1 when the remnants of Ida swept through Williamsport, dropping another 2.7 to 3 inches of rain throughout Lycoming County. But, officially, the rainfall can't be considered a part of the meteorological summer.
Another weather anomaly occurred hours before June 1.
The outside temperature was downright cool and comfortable.
Just hours before the official start of summer for forecasters, on Memorial Day, the afternoon temperature was a brisk 53 degrees, which tied a record for the coolest afternoon set in 1953, Colbert said.
"It was a chilly end to May," he said.
As June 1 arrived, it was certainly stayed mild and cool outside.
As Dick Snyder, of Snyder's Sweet Corn on Route 87 in Montoursville, remarked, early and mid-June was very cool.
It was colder in Williamsport in the early morning, he said.
From June 1 through June 10, the low morning temperature was 36 to 38 degrees, and that's not what it might have been to the north in the mountainous areas, he said.
For the most part it was a rather "unremarkable" month, Colbert said.
Nothing too much out to pique a weatherman or weather watcher's interest.
But the cool days were the factor.
For example, June 17 and June 23 both had lows each of those nights that dipped into the mid-40s in the city and may have been colder in the mountains.
Other days when it was rather comfortable for sleeping without air conditioning were on June 11, which came with a high of 72 and a low of 59 and June 16, which brought a high of 76 and low of 57.
For much of the month when strawberries ripened and the fields were harvested it was drizzly and cloudy with days when the sun would peak out behind the clouds.
A humid, cautionary month
Then July arrived, and, as expected the heat yielded powerful afternoon thunderstorms and, worse, a handful of tornadoes.
Colbert said the National Weather Service issued multiple storm advisories, flash flood watches and warnings and noticed tornadic activity on the radar.
A tornado warning was issued at 7:39 p.m. July 11 for the Jersey Shore, Williamsport, Cogan Station and DuBoistown areas, Colbert said.
Again, a tornado warning was issued two days later on July 13 for southern Lycoming County.
"We did not find any major damage from tornadoes," said Colbert, although there was evidence of trees down and some minor structural damage reported.
The month continued with celebrations of July 4 and fireworks, along with the normally humid days during the Lycoming County Fair, where there were afternoons that were met by spotty showers and some thunderstorms.
The rain and humidity were evident this July because of the tropical flow of air from the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean, Colbert said.
The summer of 2020, which was during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, was one in which air flow was mostly driven from the north and Canada and kept conditions far drier, he said.
"That explains the humidity," he said, of the same air experienced by southern states, and islands in the Caribbean Ocean.
But, despite the heat and humidity, Williamsport did not get above the 100-degree mark, he said.
That has happened a couple of times with the record high of 106 experienced by Depression-era folks on July 9, 1936.
This year, the hottest it got was actually on June 29, when it reached 96, and 94 on July 6, but with heat index at 99, he said.
The heat index explained
That is a factor used by forecasters and it involves the process of the human body sweating, he said.
When it is extremely hot, the sweat pours out of the skin pores but evaporates slower and people tend to feel more oppressed if they are outside under the sun.
It is akin to the opposite during winter with wind chill factors, when the exposed skin can experience frostbite within a matter of seconds to minutes depending on the ambient temperature.
Looking ahead for the early fall, Colbert said the national data indicated a La Nina forming. That is when the water is cooler in the Pacific Ocean off the western coast of South America, he said.
It can result in some strong impacts on the weather but really was too early to tell, he said.