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Vannesa Leal summed it up as she whiled away an afternoon last week at the Gene Leahy Mall.
Nearby, swans chased geese, kids caromed down slides and lovers entwined along the sidewalks. A relaxed Leal observed: “It has been the best summer ever. It's not too hot, it's not too cold. It feels good outside.
“It's been wonderful.”
A month of below-normal temperatures — Omaha has averaged nearly 5 degrees below normal — is having a ripple effect.
More folks are dining outdoors and heading to parks. Dogs have a spring in their step. The summer landscape has a tropical lushness about it — a few varieties of lily and phlox are flopping from the weight of prolific blooms.
The trade-offs, for sure, exist: Fewer kids are swimming; tomatoes and peppers have been slow to ripen; and mosquitoes are out in higher numbers.
Still, most folks wouldn't trade the summer of 2009 for more classic July weather.
“I'm thrilled with it,” said Beth Brownlee as she tended to her landscaping business downtown. “People just enjoy being out a lot more, doing yard work, taking coffee outside in the morning. Instead of commiserating about the weather, (people) are talking about how great it is.”
Layne Prest, director of behavioral medicine at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, said there's a reason why weather like this helps people feel better.
The very act of stepping outdoors begins a chemical reaction that elevates a person's mood, Prest said — sunlight stimulates the optic nerve, which signals the brain to release hormones that improve a sense of well being.
Additionally, physical movement aids those body processes that cleanse toxins.
“It's hard to tease out what's physical and what's emotional, but we are animals,” Prest said. “There is a circadian rhythm that is governed by sunlight.”
Gabriel Antonio, who is homeless, said cool nights have made for some chilly sleeping and have slowed the ripening of tomatoes he planted in a church yard.
“It's the weirdest July I've seen in 59 years,” he said after visiting with Brownlee.
City officials say Omaha pool attendance is down about 5.8 percent from last summer.
Dave Samuhel, meteorologist with AccuWeather Inc., The World-Herald's weather consultant, said the cool weather is generally due to the jet stream looping farther south. That has allowed cool Canadian air to flood much of the Midwest.
Samuhel said the cool weather is likely to continue. And while August could still bring heat, he said, the region is unlikely to see an extended heat wave.
If oppressively hot weather comes, he said, it will come in one- or two-day shots.
Historically, the last two weeks of July are the hottest time of the year in Omaha, according to the National Weather Service.
Cooler weather has had Jack and Faye Kniss of Gothenburg, Neb., spending more time outdoors and with friends. As they watched their grandchildren and granddaughter's foster children play in Omaha's Leahy Mall, they said they've been barbecuing and traveling more.
“God's decided to give us a cool summer to appreciate life,” Faye Kniss said.
Youngsters Devon and Sara Cleaveland of Omaha were showing their cousins from England around the Old Market, and all four agreed that the weather has been nice — if not a tad warmer than England.
Nearby, at the Old Market's Souq women's boutique, owner Emily Wynn said business has been good. Customers are more comfortable trying on clothes, and foot traffic has been up.
She's trying to convince her daughter-in-law, who is visiting from Phoenix, that this kind of weather is normal.
“I want them to think that Omaha has nothing but beautiful weather, so they'll move here.”
Contact the writer:
444-1102, nancy.gaarder@owh.com
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