Summer Review
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Overall the summer of 2000 was a hot one. But try telling that to people in the northeast. I'm Dave Thurlow for the Mount Washington Observatory in New Hampshire and you are listening to the Weather Notebook.

Let's take a look at Albany, New York. The state capital never cracked 85 degrees the entire month of July. Albany's average temperature was as low as it's been for any July since records started back in 1826. How about a getaway to the Catskills, just south of Albany? Summer was even more drab there. Binghamton, New York, got only 44 percent of its possible sunshine for July-in other words; it was cloudy more than half of the time. Binghamton managed to reach 80 degrees only once in the whole month.

How about Boston? How about a foot of rain in June and July, twice the average? Boston did reach 90 degrees four times this year, but only once in the summer--the other three 90-degree days were in the spring. Even the swampy heat inside the beltway took a holiday this year. Washington D.C. cracked the 90-degree mark just four times in July and August.

Meanwhile the western U.S. was dealing with record drought and heat. As is often the case one half the country is warm, the other cool. But still, in spite of the Northeast's dreariness, across the country, this was the11th warmest summer in 100 years, which says a lot about how hot it was in the west. 11th warmest? That's easy to believe if you were baking in Boise, but try telling it to the folks who were shivering in Schenectady.

Check out mountwashington.org for all kinds of weather information and a link to the weather history records for your neck of the woods. Our show is funded by the National science foundation.