Cool Summer for the Southeast

Posted on August 29, 2023

The past couple of years have been hotter than normal. However, HARDI’s August issue of their Data Driven Newsletter called out something different this year – this summer has been an unusually cool summer. May and June were cooler in the southeast compared to normal, and July was moderately warmer.

Looking at the accumulated cooling degree days since January 1 and comparing them to normal, we see that Georgia, Tennessee, and Kentucky have been cooler, Florida has been flat, and Alabama and Mississippi have been warmer.

Alabama +2.39%	Mississippi +13.87%	Kentucky -22.29%

Florida +0.89%	Georgia -3.72%	Tennessee -12.60%

To get a better overall picture, we looked at the population-weighted average. By this metric, our region is -3.0% compared to normal through August 2023. For comparison, we were +5.8% during the same period in 2022, and -1.4% in 2021. As in previous years, there’s still an opportunity and a tendency for temperatures to normalize overall, potentially through some late-summer to early-fall heat in this case, but there’s no guarantee.

Joseph Carboni
Marketing, Operations & Technology Manager
Shupe Carboni & Associates