Kevin Myatt is The Roanoke Times' weather columnist.

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How is it that such a mild summer in Roanoke can end up seven-tenths of a degree above normal in temperature?

Ah, statistics. They play weird tricks with our perceptions.

The average temperature for June, July and August -- meteorological summer -- was 74.5 degrees, compared with the normal of 73.8 degrees. (National Climatic Data Center norms are figured from the 1971-2000 average.)

The trick here is simply that June and August were slightly above normal in temperature, offsetting a July that was Roanoke's seventh-coolest dating to 1912.

Temperatures in June and August were bolstered more by some warm nights rather than hot days. Roanoke only had nine days at or above 90 this year, eight of which occurred during the June-to-August period, and it never got hotter than 92.

Nationally, this summer, averaging 71.4 degrees, was four-tenths of a degree below the 20th century average and a departure from recent summers that have been considerably warmer than normal.

This summer's coolest weather was centered in the north-central states, where Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota had summer average temperatures that were between the fifth- and tenth-coolest on record dating back to 1895.

September, so far, has averaged about a degree below normal in Roanoke, but the next couple of days will feel more like late August with highs in the mid-80s.

Weather Journal appears on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.