Far above Nebraska, a pair of invisible partners started slow-dancing in late July.
The high-pressure upper ridge hovering, with remarkable stability, over the western U.S. And the low-pressure trough next to it, creating a funnel that has been importing cool, Canadian air into your open windows this month.
Al Dutcher, the state’s associate climatologist, knows he can go into enough detail about what’s been happening in the atmosphere to make your eyes glaze. The interplay between the systems. The role of cloud cover and ground moisture.
But here’s something easier to understand as you reach for a sweatshirt this morning: August temperatures have been an average 4 degrees cooler than normal.
And here’s something else: Dutcher expects his next electric bill to drop by about 15 percent.
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“You no longer have to cool your house like you did in July,†he said. “And we have enough heat during the day we haven’t needed our furnaces at night.â€
For the first time since 1915 — and the second since 1887, when meteorologists began keeping records — August temperatures have failed to reach 90 degrees in Lincoln.
Typically, Augusts have multiple 90-degree days; in 2010, for example, we had 20, and last year 11. The temperature got close once this month, reaching 89 degrees on Aug. 15. But seven times, it couldn’t break 80. Once, it didn’t even hit 70.
If the forecast holds Thursday, August will be one of Lincoln’s 15th coolest, said Ken Dewey, a climatologist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Still, it hasn’t been truly cold, he said. It just hasn’t been hot.
“There were no hot days. It’s a subtle difference, but it’s a really big difference,†Dewey said. “We’re hovering around 85, a couple of degrees up, a couple down. It has been a San Diego summer.â€
And that what’s been remarkable about August — the steadiness of the weather, the lack of temperature extremes, the weather systems that seem to have set their anchors.
“It’s gridlock, that’s basically what it is,†Dewey said. “The atmosphere is stuck in a pattern … with a warm dry West and a much colder area off to our east, and Nebraska is stuck in the middle.â€
The pattern has cooled the entire state, though not as much in western Nebraska, where average temperatures dropped by only 1 to 2 degrees, Dutcher said.
It could have been worse. The northern reach of the trough has been parked above southern Canada in Saskatchewan and British Columbia, with their more maritime temperatures. “If it were coming from the Yukon,†he said, “it would be much colder.â€
But even a few degrees can make a difference on a summer day in Lincoln.
Last year, public swimming pools drew more than 14,000 people during the last week they were open. This year, only about 8,000, said Holly Lewis with the Parks and Recreation Department. Pools didn’t even open the first Saturday in August because of cold, wet weather.
The city’s golf courses have been healthier, and slightly busier. “We’ve had an increase in rounds and revenue out there,†said Denis Vontz, the pro at Highlands Golf Course.
More importantly, he said, course conditions are better. Many Augusts, hot nights and high humidity can produce a fungus that attacks golf courses. But not this year.
And not in the near future. Forecasters are predicting the weather pattern won’t change for at least the next two weeks.
But the central U.S. is the exception, Dewey said. Worldwide, this is still the second-warmest year on record.
“The rest of the earth is sizzling away. The earth is bathed in red color; there’s just a few spots that happen to be cold, and we’re stuck in this cold.â€