Sep. 1-6, 2015: 3rd-Warmest Start to September On Record at Hastings, 9th-Warmest at Grand Island

Thanks to a persistent ridge of high pressure aloft and several days of southerly breezes at the surface, the first six days of Sep. 2015 will go down in the record books as one of the hottest on record across the local area of South Central Nebraska and North Central Kansas. Many places recorded highs of at least 90° through each of these first six days, which is relatively rare for September. Although NWS Hastings collects climate data for dozens of locations across the area, our two "primary" long-term data record sites are Grand Island and Hastings airports, for which details follow below:

Grand Island, Central Nebraska Regional Airport: (temperature records date back 120 years to 1896):

- Based on the average daily temperature of 81.3° (meaning an average of the daily highs/lows)...Sep. 1-6, 2015 tied with 1990 for the 9th-warmest start to September on record out of 120 years dating to 1896. Prior to 1990, one has to go all the way back to 1960 (55 years ago) to find a warmer start to September than this year!

- Each of the first six days of Sep. 2015 featured highs ranging from 92-96°. The last time September featured at least 6 consecutive days of 90+ degree high temperatures was 25 years ago in 1990. However, that streak was more impressive than this year, as it lasted through the first 13 days of the month!

- Despite Sep. 1-6, 2015 being a Top-10 warmest start to September, Grand Island did not set any new daily records for warmest high/low temperatures.

Hastings Municipal Airport: (temperature records date back 109 years to 1907)

- Based on the average daily temperature of 81.9° (meaning an average of the daily highs/lows)...Sep. 1-6, 2015 featured the 3rd-warmest start to September on record out of 108 available years dating to 1907. The only warmer starts were at least 93 years ago, consisting of 84.0° in 1922 and 83.5° in 1913. In more recent times, the warmest opening 6 days of September prior to this year was 25 years in 1990 (81.1°).

- Each of the first six days of Sep. 2015 featured highs ranging from 91-97°. The last time September featured at least 6 consecutive days of 90+ degree high temperatures was 25 years ago in 1990. However, that streak was more impressive than this year, as it lasted through the first 11 days of the month!

- Despite Sep. 1-6, 2015 being a Top-5 warmest start to September, Hastings did not set any new daily records for hottest high temperatures, and only tied one record for warmest low temperature (72° on Sep. 4th, tying the original record set in 1925).

This page was composed by the staff at the National Weather Service in Hastings, Nebraska.