The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
A soggy summer to remember
June’s heavy rains top summer weather highlights
Looking back on Northeast Ohio’s summer weather, the statistic that makes the biggest splash was the 8 inches of rain that fell during the month of June.
That rainfall amount ranked the month as the fourth wettest June on record for the Greater Cleveland region, said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Dave Samuhel. According to the National Weather Service, the rainiest June in the Northeast Ohio took place in 1902, when 9.7 inches of rain drenched the region.
Cold fronts throughout June of this year brought a good deal of rain and thunderstorms to Northeast Ohio, Samuhel said. Although the June through August period of 2019 started in soaking style, the same time frame of 2018 actual produced more overall rain.
Month-by-month comparisons for each year, according to AccuWeather statistics, are as follows:
• June: 8 inches in 2019; 3.4 inches in 2018
• July: 2.6 inches in 2019; 6.68 inches in 2018
• August: 3.23 inches in 2019; 4.89 inches in 2018
When you tally up the figures from each year, the June-through-August summer stretch of 2018 reigned
as the more rainy summer, by a margin of about 15 to 14 inches.
But the 8 inches of rain in June 2019 is a more vivid memory for many Northeast Ohio residents. The plethora of precipitation created some difficult conditions for businesses or organizations that rely on favorable weather to operate smoothly and successfully. Pete Wayman, owner of Wayman Farms on Bennett Road in Madison Township, said he lost crops such as sweet corn and green beans in June because of too much
rain.
But one crop that did well at Wayman Farms in June was strawberries.
“In between raindrops, we got to pick some very nice strawberries,” he said. Wayman noted that the excessive rain in June followed a wet and cold spring.
“It was very, very wet this year,” he said. “I don’t recall a year as wet as this in some time.”
Wayman said he would rather have a dry growing season than a wet one, because too much water can promote fungal diseases in crops, and “spraying is a very costly option.”
For Lake Metroparks, the wet weather in June forced cancellations of some programs, but activity stabilized in July and August when weather improved, said Seth Begeman, chief of outdoor education. The rain during the spring and month of June also caused record-high water levels on Lake Erie. One place where erosion swallowed up a significant portion of beach was Fairport Harbor Lakefront Park, which is managed by Lake Metroparks.
“People still came out and enjoyed the beach, but they had less space to deal with,” Begeman said.
At the Lake County Outdoor YMCA in Perry Township, rain and cooler temperatures in June had a major impact on daily pass and membership revenues for the month, said Program Director Abby March. “We rely on a warm and sunny June to kick off our memberships and drive in the people to our aquatics facility, which did not happen this season,” March said. “Attendance was down drastically in June due to the weather and cooler temperatures.”
Activity picked up in July, thanks to a lot of hot
and sunny days, she said. But another downturn occurred around the middle of August, when temperature declined sooner that anticipated.
“When you are running an outdoor aquatics facility, each year is a gamble and you just hope for as many hot and sunny days as possible, knowing that summer in Northeast Ohio is short lived,” March said. “The season this year was definitely much shorter than we had hoped with such a late start and warm temperatures that didn’t hold on through the end of our season.”
During the June through August period of 2019, Northeast Ohio’s average high temperature was 81.9 degrees, or 1.2 degrees above normal, while the average low temperature was 64.3 degrees, or 1.8 degrees above normal, according to the National Weather Service’s Cleveland office. The highest recorded temperature of the summer was 95 degrees on July 20, with a low of 50 recorded on June 14.
Fall officially begins Sept. 23 in Northeast Ohio, and Samuhel said he is “leaning toward near average to slightly warmer than normal temperatures” as the season starts. Those average high and low temperatures, respectively, for the region are 79 and 68 in September; 68 and 57 in October; and 57 and 44 in November.