September 2020 was slightly cooler-than-average in Cleveland

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) - Truth be told, I wanted to write in the headline that September was wetter-than-average, and the numbers (for Cleveland, at least) do show that.

It wouldn’t exactly be a false claim.

Why didn’t I?

Because there was really only one day that was terribly wet, and that was September 7th.

Perspective is important, especially when it comes to weather, and accurate weather record keeping.

September 7th, 2020 will go down as not just a rainy, nasty day, but it will be forever logged in the record books as the third wettest day on record in Cleveland.

[Monday was the third wettest day ever recorded in Cleveland]

Until the next one, of course.

We accumulated 3.98 inches of rainfall in Cleveland on the 7th alone.

The next wettest day in September was the 28th, when we picked up 1.23 inches of rainfall at Hopkins.

Without that Labor Day extreme rainfall event, we would have only accumulated 1.81 inches of rainfall in Cleveland in September, hence my hesitancy to start this whole month in review by stating that this was a wet month.

While the month-end rainfall total of 5.79 inches at Hopkins seems, and is, high, those of us who spent September 2020 hunkered down in our work-from-home spaces, or tapping away at the computer, virtual learning, know that it was really only one wet day that gave us that high rainfall total for the month.

Out of 30 days, 20 of them featured totally dry conditions.

Truth be told, it was a pretty nice month, and September generally is.

In the Akron area, we accumulated 2.82 inches of rainfall in September, 1.68 inches of which fell on September 7th.

With September’s high rainfall total in Cleveland, one might ask, “Was this one of the wettest Septembers on record?”

The answer there is no.

September 2020 did not even make it into the top 10 wettest Septembers on record in Cleveland.

Fun fact: The wettest September on record in Cleveland was in 1996.

We picked up 11.05 inches of rainfall in Cleveland over the course of that month, 4.59 inches of which fell on, you guessed it, September 7th, when the remnants of Hurricane Fran moved through.

Back to the year 2020 now, this September was also somewhat cooler-than-average.

Our average temperature in Cleveland was 64.4 degrees.

The normal average temperature for September is 65 degrees.

Akron, however, was slightly above average in the temperature department during the month of September.

The average temperature in Akron in September was 65.3 degrees.

The normal average temperature there for September is 63.1.

So, that begs the question, what will October bring?

This first day of the month has certainly been quite cool, and we expect temperatures to remain cooler-than-average through the weekend.

By Tuesday and Wednesday of next week (the 6th and the 7th), if the current forecast holds, temperatures will return to the low (and even a few mid) 70s.

The latest one-month temperature outlook from the Climate Prediction Center gives us equal chances for above average, below average, or near-normal temperatures during the month of October 2020.

The 19 First Alert Weather Team is forecasting a pretty typical October around here, with some cooler, frostier nights, especially later in the month, and a few, occasional warmer days here and there.

Regarding precipitation, we do expect October to be somewhat drier-than-normal, despite the fact that this first evening of October will bring scattered lakeshore thunderstorms.