Summer Temperatures Don't Cooperate for Extended Season

The average annual temperature for Bridgehampton, New York is 51.7 degrees. And that is a very important number when you look at what needs to happen for the rest of this year. The temperatures this past winter were so brutally low that by the end of March we were set on a course that, if it didn’t improve during the rest of the year, would come in as the worst annual low ever.

And it didn’t improve, at least looking at the numbers through the end of July. In fact, last week, when the weather authorities announced that around the world, the temperatures had risen to the highest levels ever, they had to talk about us. There was one exception to this, they said. It was really cold in the northeastern corridor of the United States.

In January in Bridgehampton, it was supposed to be 31.5 degrees. It was 28.5 degrees. In February it was supposed to be 33 degrees. It was 19 degrees. In March, it was supposed to be 39 degrees. It was 32 degrees. And April was a further 1.5 degrees colder than the average.

In March, therefore, I wrote an article in which I said the best thing that could happen would be to have temperatures 5 degrees higher in May and June, and then again in September and October. If we could do that, and we could keep July and August steady, we would make up the amount we had fallen behind and we would have a glorious six-month-long summer swimming season from May 1 to the beginning of November.

Turns out that May and June did not do their part. Temperatures were about what they were supposed to be those months. It was nice, but it was not beach weather. July WAS beach weather, but it was at the average. Same has been true during the first half of August and the last half doesn’t look like it’s going to get up to a hundred. This still leaves us with the full 25.5 degrees to make up between now and New Year’s Eve. To do that, September will have to feel like August, October will have to feel like September, November will feel like October and you’ll be able to go out in a windbreaker in December. As for the Polar Bear Plunge, it will be just another beach day.

Let’s hope for all this.