St. Paul Pioneer Press

Labor Day marked the unofficial end to summer, and the National Weather Service says it ended up being a bit warmer and drier than normal across the region.

That was because August was very dry and ended with a heat wave, according to the weather service’s Chanhassen office.

The Twin Cities experienced an average meteorological summer (June through August) temperature of 72.9 degrees. That was 1.6 degrees above normal. Summer precipitation was 10.75 inches, 1.84 inches below normal.

August in the Twin Cities saw an average temperature of 74.7 degrees, 3.5 degrees above normal. August precipitation was 2.07 inches, 2.23 inches below normal.

The weather service noted that the first half of August continued a trend of below-normal temperatures that started in the second half of July. But the pattern abruptly switched in the second half of the month.

The last week of August ended up being the warmest week of the entire summer, with the Twin Cities sometimes breaking daily high-temperature records while recording six straight days with highs of 90 degrees or higher.

The weather service said the heat exacerbated dry conditions that developed since the wet June, leading drought conditions to expand across the region, which is now categorized as being in moderate drought.

For details on the August and summer regional climate summaries, go to www.crh.noaa.gov/mpx.

—Distributed by MCT Information Services