Something happened to August's temperatures in Buffalo that hadn't happened in a long time

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Well, Western New York, "that's a wrap" — a wrap, that is, on the meteorological summer.

Just what is meteorological summer, and how does that differ from how the calendar defines the beginning and ending of summer? Basically, it's just a form of accounting that meteorologists use to break down statistics for the season. Just like sports enthusiasts love their stats and data on their favorite players and teams, meteorologists like their stats as well. And yes, those statistics can be just as random in the world of weather, as they can be in the world of sports, but that's another discussion for another time.

The meteorological seasons consist of four three-month periods. It's kind of like how sales teams and accountants break down the business year into quarters. In the case of meteorological summer, this means an analysis of the three months of June, July, and August.

So how did summer shake out for Buffalo?

Let's talk temperatures first. On average, this was one of the warmest summers Buffalo has seen since records began back in 1871. Only six other summers have been warmer, most recently back in 2021.

But, as statistics go, there's a catch here. For the first time since November of 2023, there was a stretch of 13 days in August that averaged COOLER than normal.

Here are some other stats from the meteorological summer for Buffalo.

The question now is will this trend toward more typical temperatures continue. The Climate Prediction Center has us in a region of cooler-than-average weather through the middle of September. Highs by next weekend may not get out of the 60s, despite day-to-day warming this week.

Looking ahead, not only do we have somewhat cooler times ahead for September, we also have a large loss of daylight, and historically, sometimes, some..."surprises."