THIS SUMMER RANKS AMONG COOLEST IN CAPE GIRARDEAU

This summer has been one of the coolest on record in Cape Girardeau, says a local climatologist.

The average temperature for June, July and August was 75.4 degrees, 2.2 degrees below the average for those three months in the 52 years of temperature records for Cape Girardeau, said Al Robertson, climatologist at Southeast Missouri State University.

The jetstream, the wind in the upper atmosphere that blows cooler air south from Canada, came farther south than it normally does this summer, Robertson said. Cape Girardeau sits in a border area between places where the weather is primarily affected by Canadian air masses or air masses from the Gulf of Mexico. Wind patterns move the boundary north or south of Cape Girardeau affecting temperatures accordingly, Robertson said.

Temperatures in the Bootheel are significantly higher than in Cape Girardeau because the boundary between Canadian and Gulf air is more likely to be north of the Bootheel, plus the soil is darker and absorbs more heat from the sun, he said.

This summer was only the second one this decade with temperatures lower than average. For the 1990s, summers averaged 77.8 degrees, 0.2 degrees above normal.

Robertson said this summer was wetter than normal, although some nearby areas were actually drier than normal. Most summer precipitation comes in the form of short, intense, localized thunderstorms, meaning that summer precipitation varies widely from place to place over short distances, Robertson said.