August 31st, 2010 at 2:10 am by Bill Steffen under Bill's Blog, Weather 
<–click on the image (from NCDC) to see full screen. This is a map of temperatures from the summer of 1988. A number of people have commented about how the summer of 2010 could be warmer than the summer of 1988. In the summer of 1988 we had 37 days that reached 90°, fourteen of those days got up to 95° or higher and there was one day that hit 100° (the only 100-degree temperature we have had since 1964 in G.R.). Yesterday was only the 8th 90-degree day of 2010 and none of those days has been warmer than 93°. So, 1988 wins if you are looking for the hottest high temperature days. However, when you look at the whole 24-hour period and average out the highs and lows put together, 2010 is a clear winner. June, July and August of 1988 were +1.4°, +3.3° and +3.8° above normal. June, July and August of 2010 are +2.1°, +4.1° and +5.3°. In 1988 we had only 1.07″ of rain in May and 0.25″ of rain in June (driest June ever). The dry conditions made for large daily (diurnal) swings in temperature. In June of 1988, we hit 90° ten times, but we also had 10 mornings with lows in the 40s (six mornings with lows of 40-42). On July 4th, 1988 – we had a high of 93 and a low of 53. The high was 11 degrees warmer than average, the low was 7 degrees cooler than average…so the day wound up only two degrees warmer than average. August 1-17 was very hot (13 of 17 days hitting 90), but we didn’t get warmer than 81° after the 17th. Sept. of 1988 was cooler than average with 7.49″ of rain. We’re on track to have the warmest summer since 1955. The five hottest summers in Grand Rapids occurred between 1921 and 1955.
<–click on the image (from NCDC) to see full screen. This is a map of temperatures from the summer of 1988. A number of people have commented about how the summer of 2010 could be warmer than the summer of 1988. In the summer of 1988 we had 37 days that reached 90°, fourteen of those days got up to 95° or higher and there was one day that hit 100° (the only 100-degree temperature we have had since 1964 in G.R.). Yesterday was only the 8th 90-degree day of 2010 and none of those days has been warmer than 93°. So, 1988 wins if you are looking for the hottest high temperature days. However, when you look at the whole 24-hour period and average out the highs and lows put together, 2010 is a clear winner. June, July and August of 1988 were +1.4°, +3.3° and +3.8° above normal. June, July and August of 2010 are +2.1°, +4.1° and +5.3°. In 1988 we had only 1.07″ of rain in May and 0.25″ of rain in June (driest June ever). The dry conditions made for large daily (diurnal) swings in temperature. In June of 1988, we hit 90° ten times, but we also had 10 mornings with lows in the 40s (six mornings with lows of 40-42). On July 4th, 1988 – we had a high of 93 and a low of 53. The high was 11 degrees warmer than average, the low was 7 degrees cooler than average…so the day wound up only two degrees warmer than average. August 1-17 was very hot (13 of 17 days hitting 90), but we didn’t get warmer than 81° after the 17th. Sept. of 1988 was cooler than average with 7.49″ of rain. We’re on track to have the warmest summer since 1955. The five hottest summers in Grand Rapids occurred between 1921 and 1955.
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