I think I spent way too much time on-line this past Monday morning trying to find out our relatively local seasonal weather statistics
“But why Donald,” you are asking, “when you have lived over half of your life expectancy did you waste your precious time on such a folly? You know, you will never get that time back?”
Thusly I say unto thee, oh Readers of Mine: Weather, like nothing else, touches us all. It is one of the top newsstories around. Always. If you do not believe me, I lay down this challenge to you. Tonight when you watch the local broadcast news, time the amount of time devoted to weather versus everything else. Weather time tops all other news combined. And, this summer’s weather has been totally on most folks minds.
It has been a dry, hot summer.
Humid, too. Gosh, it has been so ickily sweaty that I have nary been out in my yard — only to water the vegetable garden. Weather came to mind as a column idea, because it actually rained last week! It was Friday, and I was so excited, I peeled off my shirt, shucked my flip flops and “played” in the rain. It was so cold, so good and washed away my sweat from watering the garden, only minutes before.
I am sure the neighbors were happy to see a half naked, hairy guy outside in the rain. Oh, well. I kinda; felt like a kid again. We — my younger sisters and I — always frolicked in the summer rains: sliding downhill on the wet grass; building dams in the runoffs; splashing through puddles; and basically becoming soggy, muddy messes. It was awesome!

Do kids still play in the rain? My boys (now stinky, later-aged teenagers) used to play in the downpours with me. I wonder if they still want to play in the rain, or do they think it an embarrassing display of frivolity? Do any adults play in the rain these days? When did life’s simple, little fun things go away?
I reckon these are all questions only to be answered by and to yourselves. Believe me, last Friday’s foray into the wild wetlands of my back yard revived my wilted senses and refreshed my parched soul. I highly recommend you “play” in the rain during the next downpour that comes our way. You will not regret it!

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So, as we have already ascertained, weather was on my brain this week. I wanted to know what kind of a summer season we have experienced thus far. And, here is what I found out by going on a number of websites.
From June 1 through Monday, August 15 (76 days) we have had 46 days of 80 degree or hotter weather; 19 of those days were 85 to 89 degrees; four days were in the 90s. I found these numbers by going to AccuWeather.com and looking at the calendars for June, July and August.
For each day the calendars had the actual high and low temperatures and the historic averages.

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I went to Intellicast.com and found that in August, the average low and high temperatures for these parts is 59 degrees and 80 degrees. The record low was 40 degrees set in 1986. The record high temperature for August was set two years later, in 1988. We had a 101 degree day. (I actually remember that summer, at the time I was running six miles a day, talk about sweating!)

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Rainfall.WeatherDB.com says, for the season, our average summer rainfall is 9.18 inches. I am not sure if they count all of June in the summer season, or just after the first official day of summer, June 20.
I went to the Weather Underground website (WUnderground.com) and, like the above calendars looked at the rain amounts for each day of the last 76 days. So far this summer, as reported from the Oakland County International Airport in Waterford, we have received 5.5 inches of rain. (I hear we may get up to two more inches of rain between tonight and tomorrow — wooo-hoo, I will have my swimming trunks and beach towel on standby!)

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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says our area is in between an “Abnormally Dry” summer and “Moderate Drought.”

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I think the late legendary Channel 4 (WDIV) weatherman Sonny Eliot might have called it a Swickily Summer. For my younger peeps out there, Eliot spent about 50 years on the Detroit broadcast airwaves making words up. He was known for describing the weather by combining words to make a hybrid word. An Ickily and Sweaty summer could become Swickily. Or for a “dry and hot” summer, he may have said, it’s a “Drot Summer.”
Before I go let me remind you: STAY HYDRATED!

  don rush, don’t rush me, drought, playing in the rain, sonny eliot