This was a fine summer for weather. There was plenty of sunshine, plenty of good sailing weather and enough rain. The three months that make up summer on the Vineyard, June through August, were in large part visitor friendly. Rainfall events were more often short, frequent and at night, which would please both the swimmer and the farmer.

There were only a few significant weather events: a hurricane that missed the Island and a rare severe thunderstorm in July that produced a lot of lightning and thunder and a quick, heavy shower.

Total rainfall so far this year is close to average. In the first eight months of the year, we’ve received a total of 29.89 inches of measurable precipitation [rain and melted snow]. The annual average for the same period is 30.06 inches. The weather data comes from the National Weather Service cooperative station in Edgartown.

There were 18 days in August that produced some amount of precipitation, whether it was a trace or the monthly maximum of 2 inches, recorded on the morning of August 16.

It was a warm summer. The two warmest days in June and July were both 88 degrees. The warmest in August was 87. Both July and August were above average for warmth. The average temperature for June was 63 degrees, two degrees cooler than the average of Junes going back to the 1940s.

A year ago, July was wetter and hotter. The rainfall was an inch above average for the month at 3.24 inches. The high for the month was 94 degrees. The annual rainfall average for last year, at the end of August was 31.90 inches, not much different from this year. And last year, there was more summer wind than this year.

But don’t forget that last year, in September, the Vineyard got a record-breaking rainfall of 6 inches from Hurricane Earl that passed off to the east of Nantucket. The remnants of Hurricane Irene produced less than a tenth of an inch of rainfall.