Back to top

Weather Summary August 2016

Weather as Recorded at the UMass Cranberry Station

East Wareham

Prepared by Carolyn DeMoranville

NOTE: Beginning in July 2016, the temperature and rainfall data will be compared to the 30 year average for the period 1981 to 2010.  The reports for January to June 2016 have been modified to reflect this new convention for the entire year, since often we refer to 'year to date' information.  The data that have been corrected in those reports is highlighted in bold.  It is worthy of note that compared to the 30 year averages from 1961 to 1990 (previous comparator), the average daily temperature was warmer in every month in the 1981-2010 data set compared to that in the older one.

August was a record warm, very dry and very sunny month.  The temperature averaged 74.5 degrees, 4.0 degrees above normal, beating the old record of 73.7° from 2015 and 1937. There were 4 days of 90 or above temperature with another 11 days of 85-89°.  The maximum temperature of 92.3 was recorded on the 14th.  The minimum temperature of 55.4 degrees was recorded on the 23rd.  Daytime high temperatures averaged 84.7 degrees, 5.9 degrees above the norm.  Evening temperatures averaged 65.2 degrees, 3.5 degrees above the norm.  There were 7 nights with temperatures of 70 or above and and only 6 nights with temperatures below 60.

Sunshine totaled 71% of the possible sunshine hours, which is 13 points above the norm.  There were 14 days with 90% or greater of possible sunshine, and only one day with no sunshine.

Precipitation totaled 1.59 inches, 2.28 inches below normal.  We had measurable precipitation on 6 days, with 5 of those have more than 0.1 inch. More than a third of the rain (0.61") was recorded on the 1st. Year-to-date, 2016 has received 32.35 inches of rain, 6.55 inches below the yearly average for East Wareham.   Most of that deficit has occurred in the last 3 months.

Official Summer Season 

The official summer (June, July and August) was very warm, dry, and sunny.  The average temperature was 71.7 degrees, 2.5 degrees above the 30-year average for the 3-month period. All three months were above average in temperature, August setting a new record.  Total rainfall for the season was 4.54 inches, 6.42 inches below the normal precipitation for this time of year; with all three months seeing below normal rainfall.   Sunshine hours totaled 923 hours; this is 180 hours above the average for the three months, all of which were above normal.  We had a maximum temperature of 95 degrees recorded on July 23rd and a minimum temperature of 51.8 degrees recorded on June 9th.  There were 8 days of 90° or more, the last occurring on August 29th.  We had no official heat wave this season. 

Crop Forecast 

New England Agricultural Statistics Service released the United States forecast for the 2016 Cranberry crop.  Overall production is predicted to be 8.59 million barrels, up slightly from 2015.  With the exception of Wisconsin, all of the major growing regions anticipate lower crops than in 2015.  The forecast for Massachusetts is for 2.07 million barrels.