Slightly warmer summer predicted

Outlook bodes well for outdoor fun

The National Weather Service is predicting a warmer summer with roughly equal chances of it being wetter or drier.

Ian Lee, a White Lakebased meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said the latest information from the weather service’s Climate Prediction Center suggests “above-normal temperatures for June, July, and August.”

While hurricanes are predicted to be more frequent this year, they don’t typically affect Michigan weather.

“It all depends on the track of the system,” Lee said. “For a hurricane to impact us in any way, the track has to be kind south to north on the Gulf of Mexico, and impact the gulf coast by going up the Tennessee Valley or the Mississippi Valley. By the time the system would reach us, it would just be a low-pressure system. The main effects would be heavy rain in our area.

He said even if southeast Michigan has a drier season, area residents won’t likely see the kinds of fire-awareness warnings that are already common in places like California.

“That’s very rare in Michigan — so rare, the chances are about as close to zero as you can get in Lower Michigan,” Lee said.

Normal June temperatures in Metro Detroit span highs of 79.7 degrees Fahrenheit to lows of 60.2.

For July it’s 83.7 and 64.4, and for August it’s 81.4 and 63.2.

The warmest summer season on record for southeast Michigan was in 2016 when residents experienced average daily high temperature of 74.9 degrees. The hottest summer day on record remains July 24, 1934, when thermometers hit 105 degrees. The coolest summer day happened on June 11, 1972, with a 36-degree high.

As far as rainfall, southeast Michigan typically sees just under 10 inches of rain for the entire season. The driest month on record was August 1892, when just 0.16 inches of rain fell.

The wettest month included 8.76 inches of rain in August 1878.