Don't expect Minnesota's "Summer Glory Index" to be high in 2025, climatologist says

The Summer Glory Index rates how great Minnesota's summer days are based on high and low temperatures and rain.

There have been numerous heat waves this summer in the Twin Cities, plus a lot of humidity, severe storms and, of course, all the smoke.

Kenny Blumenfeld, a climatologist with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, tracks these sorts of things.

"Twenty-twenty-one, 2023 and this year are all kind of high in terms of the number of smoky days," Blumenfeld said. "So this is an unusually smoky summer, even in the context of the recent decade or so."

Blumenfeld is also in charge of the Summer Glory Index, which gives the perfect summer day a score of 40.

"So a 40-point day is one where the high temperatures in the 70s, low temperatures upper 50s to low 60s, the dew point temperature stays below 60 degrees and it doesn't rain," he said.

He says records dating back to the 1900s don't keep track of smoke, so he can't factor that into the index, which would obviously really take the score down. But even without it, this summer has been below average.

"So for the season so far, we're up a little over 1,000 points. So that puts us kind of in the lower third of recent summers," he said.

When it comes to the rain though, some Minnesotans are fans.

"This is the first time that I can remember, and I've lived out at my home for 15 years, that my grass wasn't brown," said Susan Gulbrandson. "In July, I had green grass."