Most of Central PA is under drought conditions this summer, but what was the driest summer on record? 1966 seems to be the year for most of our area. We took a look from June 1st to August 31st since record keeping began in each city, this is the span for meteorological summer. Here is the list:
Altoona (records since 1948)
- 1966 5.05″
- 1962 5.27″
- 2020* 5.55″
- 1991 5.65″
- 2002 6.23″
State College (records since 1893)
- 1966 3.47″
- 1962 4.73″
- 1929 6.34″
- 1960 6.40″
- 2020* 6.56″
Johnstown (records since 1893)
- 1894 6.25″
- 1966 6.72″
- 1893 7.03″
- 1910 7.30″
21. 2020* 9.88″
DuBois (records since 1962)
- 2020* 3.93
- 1966 6.72″
- 1991 7.24″
- 1993 7.40″
- 1998 7.47
Obviously we still have some days left in the summer of 2020 so where the 2020 precipitation amounts fall could change by the end of meteorological summer, but this paints the picture that we could have a record breaking dry summer this year.