2010 may be hottest LI summer ever

So was this Long Island's hottest summer on record?

The answer depends on whom you ask.

Yes, said a spokesman for the National Weather Service in Upton.

Not quite, according to Brookhaven National Laboratory.

The National Weather Service's record high also comes with a caveat: The Weather Service records date back to only 1984. So that means the average temperature - 74.7 - recorded at Islip's MacArthur Airport was the highest for only the past 26 years.

The previous average summer temperature was 74.5 degrees in 1999, recorded at MacArthur, said Weather Service meteorologist Joe Pollina. The average is for the "meteorological summer" of June, July and August, he said.

At Brookhaven National Laboratory, the average for August hasn't been calculated yet, but for June and July, the average was 83.5 - the second-highest reading since the Upton lab began keeping records in 1949. The highest was 83.8 in 1999.

The summer was also notably dry. Islip had 7.67 inches of rain, about 3 1/2 inches less than normal, Pollina said.

A series of high pressure systems "became stationary over the area" and made for a hot summer, he said, even as cold fronts that moved through tended to be dry.

In Central Park, the average temperature for the summer was 77.8 degrees, eclipsing the previous record of 77.3 degrees in 1966, Pollina said. Records for Central Park date to 1869, he said.