With June in the books, we're guessing a centerpiece of your holiday weekend conversations will be whether or not we're on track to replicate the glorious summer of 2015.
The answer: probably not, but it might be close, according to the first batch of data from the Minnesota state climatology office's Summer Glory Index.
Several spurts of sweltering temperatures, muggy evenings and heavy rain kept last month from replicating the near-perfect weather of June 2015.
In one month alone, we've already had four days at or above 90 degrees this year in the Twin Cities. That's the same number we had over the entire summer last year.
This perennial Minnesota debate is a little less subjective thanks to the state climatologists.
Last year, they wanted to know if June — with its abundance of sunny days and pleasant temperatures — was truly unusual. So they thought it would be amusing to quantify and rank summer weather by pleasantness.
The Summer Glory Index examines average high and low temperatures, humidity (dew point) and precipitation. It then uses these four categories to score each day's outdoor comfort. Each category accounts for 10 points of the day's overall score, with the most "glorious" days earning a perfect 40.
"It essentially helps us score the extent to which our days were comfortable, our nights were sleep-able…and if we weren't drenched by our own sweat," said Kenny Blumenfeld, senior climatologist with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
