Wayne Jankura of the Providence Parks Department rakes leaves off the surface of the Bank of America skating rink in downtown Providence on Friday. Because of Thursday night’s deluge and Friday’s high temperatures, the Friday night opening of the rink was delayed a few days.

The Providence Journal / Bob Thayer

PROVIDENCE

So you thought the weather of 2009 was a bit on the insane side, with a spring that seemed to last until fall and Noachian levels of rainfall?

Not really, according to the Northeast Regional Climate Center in Ithaca, N.Y.

Climatologist Jessica Rennells said Friday that while the summer was not very hot and July was the wettest since her center began keeping records in 1932, everything essentially averaged out.

“The [summer] season as a whole was really close to normal.”

Some farmers in New York had low crop yields, she said. The same was true in Rhode Island, where some farms in October lost a lot of their pumpkin crop to soggy conditions. Some farmers on Friday, however, reported a better-than-average harvest of apples.

Rennells’ rundown of temperatures: “April was a little above normal, May was right at normal, June was a little colder, average 64.4 degrees, and normal is 67.6. July was a little bit cooler, the average being 70.3, where normal is 73.3 degrees. August was a little above normal — the average was 73.9, where normal is 71.9. September was below normal at 63, with normal 64. October was one degree below normal with 52, while the normal is 53.”

As for November, she said, it has been warmer than usual, but it’s not over yet. The average temperature so far has been 49.2, with normal at 43.8.

As for rainfall, July and October won the race. “In July we had a lot of rain — 10.52 inches,” she said. “Normal is 3.17. That’s a lot of rain.”

Then along came October, with 7.13 inches, “a lot above normal at 3.69,” Rennells said.

The total rainfall from April to November was 37.76 inches. Normal is 30.06, so we got 25 percent more than normal.

“July and October really drove those numbers,” she said.

Speaking of rainfall, the overnight deluge from Thursday to Friday caused the cancelation of the planned opening Friday evening of the Bank of America City Center Ice Rink in Kennedy Plaza.

Bob McMahon, city parks director, said the compressor that chills the concrete surface of the rink and freezes layers of water lost out in the overnight bout with the rain.

“We were able to hold ice just fine [Thursday],” he said. “You put the water on it in thin layers, so it took us three nights to make it. We had a good inch, inch and a half. But when rainwater in that volume lands on top of the ice, especially in 50-degree weather, you just have warm water sitting on the ice.”

McMahon predicted that the excess water would evaporate overnight and allow the rink to open for business on Saturday.

At Snowhurst Farm in Chepachet, owner Daniel O’Connor grows apples. He said Friday that the combination of warm weather and plentiful rain has counter intuitively brought problems.

“Right now everything is growing too fast,” he said. “The leaves have come off, so this is the time to start pruning, and there’s an awful lot of growth on them.”

O’Connor said the weather combination had reduced his expected crop by about half.

“If you don’t have the sun, nothing will grow,” he said.Weekend forecast

Today: Mostly sunny, high in the upper 50s, wind 5 to 10 mph

Tonight: Partly cloudy in the evening, then clearing. Patchy fog. Low in the upper 30s. Wind around 5 mph

Sunday: Mostly sunny, patchy fog in the morning, high around 50, wind 5 to 10 mph.

Sunday night: Mostly cloudy. Low in the upper 30s. Wind 5 to 10 mph

tmorgan@projo.com