GREENFIELD — In Greenfield Coffee Tuesday, a chalk board informed customers that there was no soup that day — and for the rest of the season.
No soup for June, that makes sense.
Unfortunately for lunch-goers, this Tuesday in June was an unseasonable, maybe record-breaking cool late spring day, when a nice cup of hot soup would have been comforting.
The region saw likely record cool daytime temperatures Tuesday, with the high in the 50s.
Previously, the coolest daytime temperature on this date was 59 degrees, recorded in Amherst in 1928, according to the National Weather Service data that goes back to 1893.
Amherst has a similar temperature historically to Greenfield, a weather service meteorologist said.
Despite such record lows, record-highs could be approaching.
“We’re talking about record cold high temperatures today and we could be talking about record high temperatures next week,” said Kim Buttrick, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Taunton, which oversees the region as far west as Franklin County, and includes northeast Connecticut and Rhode Island.
The unseasonably cold weather is attributed to an upper-level low, or cold pool, that keeps cold weather in the area for longer than usual, dropping temperatures more significantly than a typical cold front, Buttrick said.
Those who recall, temperatures climbed into the 90s in May for a few days. The meteorologist referenced “climate swings” that can explain the weather changing widely between days, weeks or years.
“Our memories tend to be fleeting, meaning short-lived,” Buttrick said. “Just a month ago we had a couple days where we had a heat wave. So, how soon we forget.”
Though 1928 was the date of the record low daytime high in Amherst, the standing record-high for the date was 94 degrees in 1925.
The warm weather is coming back, too, at least for now, with a Bermuda-high holding temperatures at least for a bit.
“The past couple days have just been unusually cool,” Buttrick said. “The coolness and the dampness will move through and we’ll get more summer like weather.”