How Did This Summer Compare To Similar "Cooler" Summers?

Good day everyone. Now that the meteorological summer period is behind us, let's recap the weather in Cleveland from June through August.  A twitter follower reminded me that you can make numbers say what you want them to say. I responded to him saying that I always aim to paint a broad statistical picture with any weather recap to eliminate any biases and preconceived notions. Prior to the end of August, most of us had already involuntarily created our own narrative about summer before it had ended! So I try to combat the psychology with objective analysis while being cognizant of how people will perceive the numbers I present.

Enough of that, here is what I found. Remember, the time period is from June 1st through August 31st. Here is a quick look at the temperatures versus average across the US and North America. Much of the US especially the interior had temperatures around 1 to 3 degrees below average.

For Cleveland, the average temperature over the 3 months was the coolest in 10 years!

We forget about the summers in the early 2000s and a few in the 1990s.  

2004 and 2000 were far cooler than 2014.

The real temperature story was the number of days below 80 degrees. This summer ranked 5th highest of any summer since 1935.

Summer rainfall was especially high as it was last summer and in 2011.

14.84" was 5th highest in the last 30 years.

The number of days with more than ONE INCH of rainfall was not impressive...

...yet the frequency of 1/4 inch rain events was the 2nd highest (one shy of the record--21--set in 1902) since record keeping began in Cleveland in 1871!

Prior to the late 1920s, the official measurements were taken in downtown Cleveland. Since then, Hopkins Airport is the official location.

* In summary, the summer was the COOLEST since 2004

* The number of days below 80 degrees was the highest since     

   2004

* Most don't remember that 2004, 2000 and 1992 had more

* Rainfall was almost 5 inches ABOVE AVERAGE, 5th  

   highest in 30 years

* The number of 1/4" rain events was 2nd all-time. Only 1975 

   and 1957 matched this summer