(Radio Iowa) – State Climatologist Justin Glisan says August didn’t follow the record July numbers when it came to rainfall. “About three-point-four (3.4) inches for the statewide average, and that’s about three-quarters of an inch below average, with the driest part of the state that southwestern corner, only about 53 percent of normal,” Glisan says. He says there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary for the August temperature. “The normal temperature for August to 71 degrees. I take the daytime high of the overhead low and add them together, divide by two. We came right at 71 degrees, so near normal for the temperature,” he says.

The summer as a whole ended up wetter than normal as July was the second wettest in 153 years of record keeping. “Preliminarily, we’re at about 18-and-a-half inches for that statewide average. That’s almost five inches above what we would expect,” Glisan says. “So we’re looking at around the tenth wettest, June, July and August on record. And much of that rainfall was at the end of June, and the very wet July that we had.” July averaged nine-point-two inches of rain, while June was right at its average. Glisan says summer wasn’t far from what we expect for temperature. “Slightly warmer than average, depending on where you are in the state, anywhere from a degree to a degree and a half above average,” Glisan says. “We did have some warmth in the third week of July with the heat Dome that’s set up, but overall we escaped the summer without any widespread and long term heat waves.”

What’s know as the meteorological fall starts September 1st, while the autumnal equinox is on September 22nd.