Michigan summer 2022: One of the hottest, driest summers ever

Happy Fall! Well, not officially Fall like everyone thinks but Fall in the world of Weather. 

You see, when it comes to record-keeping meteorologists all over the nation classify seasons differently. In our world, Summer is June, July, and August while Fall starts on September 1. So here we are! Goodbye summer!

Let's look back and dig into the nitty-gritty of how the "Summer" of 2022 shaped up.

When it is meteorologically OK to drink a Pumpkin Spice Latte

After starting somewhat normal, Summer cranked up in a hurry by the middle of June when we saw our first 90-degree day on June 15th. This day seemed to kick off quite the dry stretch, where we saw very little rain. 

After receiving 2.24 inches of rain in the first two weeks of June, we only picked up .11 inches to end the month.

This dry trend continued through July when we received about half of the rain we usually get (only a paltry 1.86 inch total for the month). The heat stuck around too, adding five more 90-degree days compared to only two days when the high temps were stuck in the 70s. 

August wasn't much better, tacking on 4 more 90-degree days but thankfully upping the rain amounts, bringing us a monthly total of 2.32 inches (still below average).

Overall our average high temperature was 83.7 degrees with an average low of 62.9 degrees. The heat popped us up into the top 20 list (exactly spot #20) for hottest Summer ever while simultaneously being the 22nd driest summer ever with only 6.53 inches of total rain (not a great summer for the grass). 

This is in stark contrast to last Summer where we had over 15 inches of total rain, which made us the 7th wettest Summer of all time.

It all takes me back to the beginning of Summer, when my car's air conditioning stopped working and I said to myself, "You'll be fine Derek, it's not gonna be *that* bad".  Top 20 hottest ever. Fourteen 90+ degree days. Sigh.