September heat beat June, July, August
Experts: Don’t expect any relief soon
For all of you whining about how hot it was in September: You were right.
It was hotter than in June, July or August, which is way out of the norm.
And the nation’s climate predictors say that October may not cool off as it normally does.
For much of Central Florida, the middle of this month typically marks the end of the rainy season and the start of the cooler season, when the temperature falls for the first time below 60 degrees.
“We’ll just have to see if that holds true,” said National Weather Service forecaster Derrick Weitlich.
Weitlich writes a weather summary for each month.
The one he posted this morning is headlined: “September 2018 was One of the Warmest and Driest on Record Across East Central Florida.”
Orlando got 1.91 inches of rain last month, which was 4.15 inches below normal, which made this year’s September the fifth-driest going back to 1892.
What caused the drier, hotter weather, according to the summary was, well, the weather.
“A dominant ridge aloft across the southeast U.S. during September helped block any early season cold fronts from reaching the area,” Weitlich’s summary states.
“This unrelenting warmth led to overall average temperatures for the month that were around 2 to 3 degrees above normal for most sites across east central Florida,” according
to the summary.
“These values were quite extreme, with this September ranking as the warmest on record for Daytona Beach, Sanford and Melbourne.”
Weitlich said September ranked as third-warmest on record for Orlando, fifth-warmest at Vero Beach and 10th-warmest at Fort Pierce.
Orlando did not set a single record for hottest day in September. But, as has been a developing pattern for the region, nighttime temperatures stayed exceedingly warm.
Overnight lows on four nights in Orlando matched the warmest on record.
For Orlando, the two hottest months are July, with a normal average temperature of 82.7, and August, with an average temperature of 82.8.
This year, June’s average temperature was 81.8, July’s was 82.3, August’s was 82.8 and September’s was 83.4 – 2.3 degrees above normal.