Columbus and Central Ohio Weather COLUMBUS (WCMH) -- We know hot and humid days are coming. In fact, we have already had a touch of summer warmth and sticky conditions that will linger through midweek, with the usual pop-up thunderstorms. A rapidly fading El Niño pattern associated with warmer-than-normal water in the central and eastern tropical Pacific is expected to flip to a cooler La Niña phase later this year. Typically, such a pattern changes results in a hotter-than-average summer across the Ohio Valley and the Eastern and Southern states. Community program helps young Somalis connect after school Rainfall is trickier to predict in the summertime because storms tend to be more localized compared to the rest of the year and depend on a combination of ambient humidity and periodic weaker disturbances tracking across the northern tier of the country. However, the odds favor a fairly wet summer over the eastern third of the country, and much drier conditions in most of the West. Meteorological summer is categorized as the three months starting June 1 through August 31. Astronomical summer commences with the summer solstice on June 20, 2024, at 4:50 p.m. EDT. In central Ohio, the average high temperature peaks in mid-July, hitting the mid-to-upper 80s, with nighttime lows in the mid-60s. A warm summer is likely to produce more than the mean number of 90-degree days in Columbus (21). The average first day of 90-degree weather is June 10, based on the 30-year-period of 1991-2020. Changes that are coming soon to Downtown Columbus The record number of days with temperatures at or above 90 degrees in Columbus is 49, set in 1936 and 1955, followed closely by 48 days in 2012. The demise of El Niño portends a very active Atlantic hurricane season, with weaker winds aloft over the Main Development Region (MDR) in the central and eastern tropical Atlantic, which will allow storms to grow without being ripped apart by strong jet stream winds. Colorado State University hurricane forecasters are predicting about 24 named storms, compared to the annual average of 14. (A tropical system is named when maximum sustained winds reach at least 39 mph.) Many factors, especially warm water (temperatures at or above 80 degrees) play a role in the formation of tropical systems during the warmer months of the year.