“On this June day the buds in my garden are almost as enchanting as the open flowers. Things in bud bring, in the heat of a June noontide, the recollection of the loveliest days of the year, those days of May when all is suggested, nothing yet fulfilled.”
~ Francis King, British novelist and poet, 1923-2011

Have you noticed the weather scale has tipped? Springtime brings a mix of both cool and warm days. Slowly the warm has turned to hot and now outweighs – in frequency – the milder days of spring. Nothing unusual going on here in spite of what you may hear. People love to claim the weather to be strange or weird. With certainty, the first day of summer is coming and there is no stopping it!

June is perhaps the busiest month of the year, maybe second only to December. The last day of school, graduations, weddings and finalizing summer plans all crowd the calendar. It may be a grand adventure for the kids, but for parents it’s a stress-inducing one. With grown children (sigh), time now allows for more than just simple summer survival; i.e., tackling sunburn, bug bites, boredom or a case of homesickness. Although I miss those days, my thoughts can drift to the more innovational.

Have you ever heard of a “weather scale?” Me neither. But if so, it would work something like this … During the spring and fall, the weather is balanced or mild: the arm would be level. Now consider the temperatures of winter and summer; they’re not balanced. One is decidedly cold and the other decidedly hot; the arm would be tipped completely one way or the other! Just a thought.

It seems NOAA has out-thought me with their own version of a weather scale – the NOAA Space Weather Scale. The scale lists and explains the environmental disturbances for people from three event types: geomagnetic storms, solar radiation storms and radio blackouts. The scales have numbered levels, analogous to hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes, which convey severity. They list possible effects at each level, how often such events happen, and the intensity. Pretty heady stuff; back to the basic weather!

As reflected in recent temperatures, summer draws near. Predictions tell of a warming into the upper 80s over the weekend and a drop back to the 70s early next week. With lows around 60 degrees nights will provide perfect sleeping weather. So, the forecast agrees, “The loveliest days of the year …” come with June.

Sue Kilpatrick is a Crescenta Valley resident and Official Skywarn Spotter for the National Weather Service. Reach her at suelkilpatrick@gmail.com.