Thanks for Nuttin’, Irene

    Irene was the big weather news in August, but as tropical storms and hurricanes go, it “could have been more severe,” Richard G. Hendrickson, the United States Cooperative weather observer in Bridgehampton, wrote in his monthly report for August.

    “It stayed on its northward path and we were spared the true severity of its wind and high ocean,” he said. “Some trees are down and many, many branches are torn off trees. High tidal water, some shore erosion, but mild compared to the damage done during the path of some of our previous hurricanes.”

    Mr. Hendrickson, who has been observing and recording weather in Bridgehampton for more than seven decades, knows of what he speaks.

    Daytime temperatures last month were mainly in the 80s, according to his report. The warmest days — at 88 degrees — came on Aug. 1 and 8, but it was in the 80s on 20 other days, as well. The coolest night was on Aug. 12, when the temperature dropped to 52.

    Mr. Hendrickson recorded 9 clear days, 10 partly cloudy days, and 12 cloudy ones. Measurable rain fell on 10 days, for a total of 4.19 inches, making for an excellent crop of summer vegetables in both quality and quantity, he said. Prevailing winds were from the southwest on 13 days.

    “Let’s hope that September can be as mild and storm free as last year,” he wrote. “Our coming late-summer days should be mild and clear. Yet, in the long run, some of our heaviest rains have come in the month of September.”