85-Degree Ice Cream Promise Turns Bad

When I bring my daughter home from school in the afternoon (the reason I work 7-3), we drive right by a small family farm and store called "Harner Farm" on the west side of State College. They serve ice cream there, so once the weather got warm, my daughter started bugging me every time we neared the store ("Can we get ice cream pleeeeeease?").

To save money and tooth decay, I proclaimed last week that we could get ice cream on the way home "whenever the car thermometer shows 85 degrees or above." I'd like to think that I know the weather well enough here in Central Pennsylvania (10 years this summer) to declare this scheme and not give out too much of the sweet stuff.

I figured, this agreement runs through the second week in June, when school gets out, and normal high temperatures are in the low 70's this time of year... it would be pretty rare to get to 85 degrees - almost a record, even considering that the car thermometer runs a degree or two above the actual temperature (the agreement is not valid until we're on the way home and the thermometer has had a chance to cool off from any idle-asphalt inaccuracy while waiting for her).

What I should have done, before making this promise, was whip out the cell phone and check the 10-Day forecast from AccuWeather.com on Verizon. I did not do this.

As a result, we have had ice cream on two out of three of the days since then (weekends don't count or we'd have one more from Sunday), and we're looking at more tasty treats for the three days remaining this week, making for 5 out of 6 valid days, or a 83% ice cream rate.

The data shown above is from our Pro site for State College, Pennsylvania; similar info is available on Premium and for free. On the 25th, when the official high was 86, my station at home reported 89 and we saw 90 in the car! Recent weight loss, we hardly knew ye.

This speaks to how unusual this Northeast heat wave is. Looking at the past weather data for State College shown above, we're seeing 12-15 degrees above normal averages for much of the latter half of May. We're getting close to, but probably not breaking records, every day. The AccuWeather.com 15-Day forecast for State College (PREMIUM | PRO) says the heat will continue until Sunday, when a return towards more normal temperatures will take place. A backdoor cold front will cut into the warmth in New England by tomorrow.