Mike Cronin

mcronin@citizen-times.com

Scientists have recorded June, July and August as Asheville's hottest summer on record.

The average temperature during those three months reached 75.7 degrees, said Jake Crouch, a climate scientist at the Asheville office of the National Centers for Environmental Information.

That surpassed the average from 1981 through 2010 by 3.3 degrees, Crouch said in an email.

The Centers for Environmental Information released new climate data Thursday during the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s regular monthly conference call with reporters.

Summer 2016 surpassed the previous record of 75.4 degrees set in 2010, according to data from the Southeast Regional Climate Center at UNC Chapel Hill.

Data exist back to 1902, Crouch said, when temperatures were recorded at Asheville’s downtown weather station atop the Grove Arcade.

That location continues to function, but climate scientists and meteorologists began using the weather station at the Asheville Regional Airport as the official source of data in 1964, Crouch said.

Still, the downtown station recorded an even higher average summer temperature: 77.3 degrees, Crouch said.

Meteorologists define the summer season as June, July and August. The Gregorian calendar’s formal summer end occurs with the fall equinox at 10:21 a.m. Sept. 22, according to The Old Farmer’s Almanac.

Jim Fox, director of the National Environmental Modeling and Analysis Center in Asheville, had a personal take on the summer heat.

His morning walks haven’t been as refreshing, he said.

“Asheville has always been a ‘cool-morning’ place, but not this summer,” Fox said. “The temperature has been warmer.”

That’s because nighttime temperatures also soared in June, July and August, according to data from the State Climate Office of North Carolina at North Carolina State University.

Average daily minimum temperatures for those three months ranged from 2.6 degrees to 4.5 degrees higher than the average from 1981 through 2010.

June’s average was 62.2 degrees, 2.6 degrees higher than latter time period’s average.

July’s average was 66.3 degrees, 2.6 degrees higher.

And August’s average was 67.4 degrees, 4.5 degrees higher.

Fox said he also had to use air conditioning more this summer. Usually, he opens the windows and cools off his house with a ceiling fan.

“That approach has not worked,” Fox said.

But Meghan Miles, a Charlotte-based Duke Energy spokeswoman, said the hot summer didn’t translate into higher energy use – at least according to July data.

North Carolina residential customers served by Duke Energy Progress, the part of the company that covers Asheville, used less energy this past July than last July: 1,323.95 kilowatt hours this year compared to 1,406.65 kilowatt hours last year.

Miles attributed the drop to better energy-conservation actions by customers.

Those include people setting their air conditioners at higher temperatures, closing curtains and shades to block the sun from heating the insides of houses, not cooling an empty house, and replacing filters.

“Our customers are doing more to take control of their energy usage through their energy efficiency efforts,” she said.

National Centers for Environmental Information data as of Wednesday show this year is Asheville’s fourth-hottest on record, Crouch said in an email, with an average temperature of 60.3 degrees.

On that same date, Sept. 14, the years 2012, 1949 and 1952 each had recorded hotter average temperatures for those years: 61.5, 60.7 and 60.4, respectively, he said.

Crouch said during the conference call that drought conditions have improved in some regions of the Southeast.

But Western North Carolina worsened during the past four weeks to “abnormally dry” status, according to data released on Thursday by the U.S. Drought Monitor.

Asheville’s average precipitation total this past summer was 13.57 inches, 0.21 inches above average, Crouch said.

Climate scientists called off the La Niña watch that had been in place, said Matthew Rosencrans during the conference call. He is head of forecast operations for NOAA's Maryland-based Climate Prediction Center.

That means precipitation in the Southeast from now through the end of the year has an equal chance of being normal, above normal or below normal.