Mid-Atlantic Climate Impacts Summary and Outlook: Summer 2020

MARISA Mid-Atlantic Regional Climate Summary map and title

An active summer season included near-weekly severe storm events, the arrival of Tropical Storm Isaias, and the hottest summer on record for some locations.

Read more, and use the interactive tools to explore how the average annual number of days with warm daily low temperatures has changed over the last several decades and could change in the future, in the latest MARISA Seasonal Climate Impacts Summary and Outlook.

Highlights

Northern portions of the Chesapeake Bay watershed had an abnormally dry summer, while the southern and eastern portions of the watershed experienced above normal precipitation.
Precipitation in the southern and coastal portions of the Chesapeake Bay watershed ranked among some of the top five, ten, or 20 wettest summers on record for several locations.
The Mid-Atlantic region experienced an active summer season because of near-weekly severe storm events and the arrival of Tropical Storm Isaias.
The entire region experienced warmer-than-normal conditions; it was the hottest summer on record for Norfolk, Virginia, and Harrisburg and Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
In each decade since 1981–1990, the region as a whole has seen an increase in the number of days with warm daily low temperatures—those above 70, 75, and 80°F.
An analysis of future climate model data shows that the region is projected to see increases in the number of days with warm daily low temperatures by mid- to late-century.

Read the Climate Summary

The MARISA Seasonal Climate Impacts Summary and Outlook is a seasonal series produced by NOAA’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments program that details seasonal weather and climate variability and change in the Mid-Atlantic region.

MARISA is led by the non-profit RAND Corporation, in partnership with researchers in Penn State University’s Earth and Environmental Systems Institute, and the Environment, Energy, Sustainability and Health Institute at Johns Hopkins University, along with support from researchers in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Cornell University, and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.