Finally, not an extremely warm summer (in Poland)

After a streak of six autumnal and wintery months in a row with anomalously high average temperatures (from October 2019 to March 2020 each with mean temperature no less than 2 Celsius degrees higher than 1981-2010 average) spring and summer months of 2020 bring temperatures closer to long-term averages.

April 2020 was merely 0.7C degrees warmer than long-term average, while May 2020 went down in history as the coldest since 1992. This pertains to measurements in Warsaw, since in most parts of the world the month was the hottest since records began.

June 2020 was over 2C degrees hotter than 1981-2010 average, but only 1.3C degrees warmer than 1991-2020 average which will become a benchmark in 2021. The month did not seem hot to me, as I still had in mind how scorching it was last year. Indeed, June in 2020 was 3.5C degrees colder than in 2019. In 2020, only once over the entire month the temperature exceeded +30C. In terms of rainfall, the precipitation of 166 millimetres (vs. long-term average of 70 millimetres) has brought short-term relief from the drought.

July 2020 was 0.1C degrees warmer than 1981-2010 average and 0.5C degrees colder than the 1991-2020 average, which meant the weather was clement. Sadly, it could have done with more rainfall, as only 48 millimetres have fallen on the ground, which accounts for 65% of monthly average precipitation.

Fortunately, so far we have had only 2 days with temperatures topping above +30C (12 June and 28 July), yet on both less than +31C. This, along with pleasantly cool nights and early mornings has made working from home (no aircon here) quite comfortable.

August looms as the hottest month of the year, with conceivable incidences of inflows of air masses from Sahara, those which these days bring +40C temperatures in Spain or France. I hope in Poland the onslaught of heat will be short-lasting, as sweating in front of the computer in my living room is not what I would wish on my worst enemy.

I recommend you read Michael’s post on the epidemic. Next week I will attempt to write my own note, hoping the story does not unfold tragically quickly (since in some time a tragic time is inevitable).