The official season of summer begins on Friday, June 20, and will last until September 22. However, summertime temperatures are not confined to just those 94 days. Climate change is creating some new summer weather trends.
"What we've experienced there over the past 55 years is we've seen an increase of 11 days on average each summer of above average days, so that means that roughly we're seeing 50-51 days of summer that are above average," says Shel Winkley, a meteorologist at Climate Central. "That means over half of your summer is now warmer than what it would have been in the 1970s."
Data shows that the season is not only warming, but it's shifting -- or elongating, as well. We're not seeing the cool down into fall-like temperatures until October.
"We're seeing the freeze come later in the fall, so summertime temperatures are lasting longer as we get into the cold season," Winkley said.
Climate Central has found that the first freeze of autumn in Hartford is occurring 19 days later than it was about 50 years ago.
They're also seeing that all of our seasons are warming -- winter is the fastest, followed by fall, summer, and then spring. That could signify that all of the seasons are spilling over into the next.
This could lead to changes in our growing season, where we're already seeing an extension and shift. A longer growing season signifies a longer allergy season, which many of us felt the wrath of this year.
Now, these are newer trends that meteorologists and climatologists are noticing, and they'll be worth monitoring in the coming years.
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