Cooler weather in August? Don’t ask why, just enjoy it

THE high temperature in Oklahoma City on Tuesday didn’t reach 80 — which meant it was about 15 degrees cooler than normal for this time of year. If this is the result of climate change, then sign us up!

In fact, the cool spell isn’t unprecedented in this part of the country. Just three years ago, during the summer of 2014, Oklahoma City had only one 100-degree day, according to Oklahoma Mesonet. The high temperature on Aug. 1 that year was 83, part of a stretch of six straight sub-90 days that included two days in the 70s.

And, there’s a simple explanation for what’s been occurring of late. As the forecasters at The Weather Channel put it at weather.com, conditions across the eastern two-thirds of the United States have “been influenced by a trough, or southward dip in the jet stream, for much of the summer, resulting in relatively cool and wet conditions in many areas.”

Oklahoma has seen only a taste of that — it was just over a week ago that we were baking through a stretch of 100-degree days that had the heat index in the 110 range and kept air conditioners running constantly.

But on the whole, this has been a mild summer in central Oklahoma. We haven’t had to endure weeks at a time of 100-degree days. On the contrary, although parts of western Oklahoma and the Panhandle have seen up to two dozen 100-degree days, Mesonet records show we’ve had no more than six in the Oklahoma City area.

And it doesn’t appear we’ll see that change any time soon. A forecast map on The Weather Channel’s website includes most of Oklahoma in a swath across the central tier of the United States where the chances are 70 percent to 90 percent that temperatures will be below average through Aug. 11,

According to AccuWeather.com, high temperatures in Oklahoma City should remain in the 80s and low 90s perhaps through the end of the month. And, there’s a chance for on-and-off rainfall throughout that time.

The latter is crucial, of course, because water is such a valuable resource. The rainfall total in Oklahoma City this year is 16.4 inches, which is a little more than 5 inches below normal, so any additional rain in normally arid August would be a blessing. And while area lakes are holding up well, those levels would begin to fall quickly if an extended heat wave hit.

We know all about those, of course. Recall 2011, when the town of Grandfield in southwest Oklahoma had 101 days of triple-digit temperatures. Oklahoma City had 63 — two months’ worth — that year.

It will heat up again this year, surely. The Weather Channel notes that changes in the upper-level pattern in the northern Pacific “may finally bring a shift in this stubborn weather pattern in the U.S. in the second half of August.” Here’s hoping that stubbornness persists, as we offer a prayer of thanks for the cool favors received to date.