Alabama and Mississippi had a top-2 wettest summer ever

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) - Much of the Deep South just endured an extremely wet summer. According to NOAA, Alabama saw its 2nd-wettest June-August period since 1895.

Mississippi actually saw its all-time wettest meteorological summer.

Alabama and Mississippi finished meteorological summer with a top-2 wettest mark since 1895.(NOAA)

While the summer was ultra rainy, the year as a whole has been wetter than average across nearly all of the Southeast. The lone exceptions have been small parts of the Carolinas and the southern half of Florida.

That’s where precipitation has been near or even below normal since the beginning of the year.

Total precipitation in 2021 has been very impressive across the Deep South.(NOAA)

It’s not just here in the Southeast. As a whole, the contiguous United States saw its 8th-wettest meteorological summer ever recorded. For the year, though, the Lower 48 has been right in the middle of the pack in the precipitation department.

Temperatures, meanwhile, have been a different story for much of the South.

Temperatures during meteorological summer were pretty much normal in the Southeast.(NOAA)

Pretty much every community in the South experienced a normal summer. There were really no temperature extremes from Alabama to Missouri to North Carolina to Florida.

The same cannot be said about the rest of the country where temperatures were anywhere from 2° to 8° above normal from June 1st to August 31st.

Summer 2021 is actually neck and neck with the summer of 1936 as being the warmest on record. In case you’re wondering, that was the year of the infamous Dust Bowl.

January-August 2021 has been very warm overall across the contiguous U.S., but the Southeast... — January-August 2021 has been very warm overall across the contiguous U.S., but the Southeast has been relatively average.(NOAA)

According to NOAA, a record 18.4% of the contiguous U.S. experienced record-warm temperatures. California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah saw their warmest summer ever.

When you look at the entire year through August 31st, the United States saw its 13th-warmest January-August period on record. That is still very impressive considering there are 127 years of data.

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