NOAA just released their forecast for summer and it looks like it's going to be a hot one for us. 

When I first looked at the NOAA map, I had a hard time finding Idaho. That's because we're under the very orange hot part. That translates into a way above normal chance at a hotter than normal summer.

To me, the map is a little misleading. The different colors just reflect the percentage chance that our summer will be hotter than normal, not the actual temperatures. Here's NOAA's explanation.

The goal of the forecast is to estimate how the actual conditions in the weeks or months before the season--like the presence of El Niño--tilt the odds toward or away from “equal chances” for all categories. If models predict that the chances of well above average temperatures are 60%, then the chances for the other two outcomes (near-average and well below average temperatures) must be split between the remaining 40% (100-60=40).

I have no idea what that means. I think there's someone at NOAA who is taking out some weird math revenge on all of us. I'll translate. It appears that Idaho has somewhere between a 50 and 60% chance at having a hotter summer than normal.

My brain has heated up considerably just by trying to figure all of this out. Whew.

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