BaldwinCity.com

For many meteorological purposes, we define summer to be "June-August" rather than the typical astronomical summer of June 21-September 22 (from the summer solstice to autumnal equinox).

So, when looking at the 3 summer months, the averages are pretty varied. It's been a long time ago, but June was well above normal, with 12 days over 90 and a peak of 100 (using representative number for Northeast Kansas). That was 2.4 degrees above average for June.

However, only 11 days since then have topped 90. That put us as one of the top 5 coolest July's ever with an average temperature 3.8 degrees below the normal July temperature.

August was nearly as cool, we're ending August 2.5 degrees below average. But since June gets factored into the meteorological equation, we end up with a cooler-than-average summer, but not one for the books. In fact, we didn't crack the top 20 coolest summers on record. Maybe so, but I still can't remember a summer that had so little punch to it. 2009 may be remembered as a year of recession by many, but for this weather geek I'll remember it for the summer that wasn't.