Sunshine returned to southern Maine after three wet and chilly days in a row. June 1st and 2nd this year will go into the database as a pair of the coldest June days on record and while neither set a new benchmark, combined they created a noteworthy start to the month. The initial figures for Monday and Tuesday are below.

It’s amazing how quickly people started complaining about the chilly air in spite of the fact the last week of May was more like July and gave the region an early taste of summer. Here in New England our weather averages are a product of the extremes and therefore it’s not really surprising we went from the warm to cold side of average so dramatically.

I had several folks touting that the rapid switch from heat to chill was just another example of a new climate. The reality is every time we set a record or have an unusual period of rain, cold, snow or heat doesn’t necessarily prove anything about the climate.

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We’ll need decades more data to really understand where our climate may or may not be headed and how fast we get there. A pair of cold days in June tells us nothing about climate, but does show the weather is very fickle. The amount of hyperbole thrown around every time the weather is whatever someone thinks it’s supposed to be on that day is frankly silly and frustrating to many meteorologists.

On June 2nd, back in 1909, in the town of Van Buren, the temperatures reached an unbelievable 20 degrees for the coldest June reading in New England. In Portland, that same morning, it was a chilly 44 degrees. Fast forward 30 hours later, you could have gone to the beach, when most areas in southern Maine reached into 80s. None of this proves a thing, but it does show how dramatically the weather in the past did change around this part of the world.

If we lived in Miami, Florida, San Diego, California or Quito, Ecuador for example, extremes such as we see here in New England are a rare event. Those places are usually south of the prevailing jet stream and tend to enjoy much more predictable weather. In New England we spend 6-8 months of the year very close to the boundary between polar and tropical air. In the middle of winter we are dominated by polar air and in mid-summer even the air from the north is still warm. The lack of chilly air during the peak of summer means our major shifts in weather t come in the form of humidity going up and down, usually preceded by showers or thunderstorms and not a general rain.

Things look rather nice over the upcoming 5 days. Our next chance of rain arrives early next week, but until then dry and seasonable weather will prevail. Highs over the weekend will reach around 70 degrees and while it won’t be beach weather necessarily, it will be a great time to get outside.