According to the calendar, summer is officially more than three weeks away, but we weather types tend to regard June, July and August as "meteorological summer." With that in mind, let's take a look at the official outlook for temperature and precipitation for the next three months, courtesy of the Climate Prediction Center.

First, the temperature outlook. Where areas are marked red, forecasters are leaning toward a warmer-than-average summer. On the other hand, the blue-shaded regions indicate a lean toward a cooler-than-average summer. Our area doesn't fall in either category, meaning that warmer-than-average, near-average, and cooler-than-average are equally likely - you might as well flip a coin.

Now the precipitation outlook. Here, there's only one area where forecasters are leaning one way or the other - wetter-than-average in parts of the Midwest and eastern Rockies. For the rest of the country, us included, there's no lean either way.

If you now have the feeling that, at least for us, the summer outlook is pretty ambiguous, you're right on. This is actually a pretty good example of the state of seasonal forecasting right now, especially in the summer. Often there are wide swaths of the country in which the Climate Prediction Center cannot improve on a coin flip.