The figures released this week by the National Weather Service includes some hotter-than-average temperatures, but it offers a caveat about generalizing about climate records.
It seems weather, like politics, is all local.
Lakeland, where records have been kept from various locations in the area since 1915, recorded 82.9 degrees F average temperature, making the warmest September on record, but was still slightly more than 1 degree above the long-term average of 81.7 degrees. The record was 83.8 degrees in 2018.
Across the county in Winter Haven, where records began in 1941, a record of 82 degrees only placed it as the 25th warmest September . The hottest recorded average temperature in September was 85 degrees, also from 2018.
Down in Bartow , where records date to 1892, 81.1 degrees ranked only 49th on the hot September scale. The record there is 83.5 degrees from 2014. Interestingly, second hottest September was 83.3 degrees in 1925..
Rainfall records were even more scattered, like the showers that hit here and there every month during the rainy season.
Lakeland recorded 1.59 inches, making it the seventh driest September, while the 7.39 inches that fell in Winter Haven made it 27th wettest and the 7.67 inches that fell in Bartow last month only amounted to the 53rd wettest September.
Looking ahead to winter, the predictions are for rainier and cooler days as is typical when El Nino influences our weather patterns.
Stay dry.