The weather can be crazy sometimes. For example, sometimes it can look sunny when facing the north and partly cloudy in the south, but there are menacing storm clouds to the west.

This sums up the butter category well. The good news is the entire butter/margarine/spreads category saw growth in the 52-week period ending Aug. 11, according to data from Chicago-based market research firm Circana. Dollar sales ticked higher by 1% year over year (YoY) to $7.3 billion, with unit sales increasing the same 1% figure to 1.6 billion.

There are sunny skies regarding dairy butter. The subcategory’s dollar sales jumped by 4% YoY to $5.1 billion, while unit sales increased a similar 3% YoY to 984 million, Circana research shows. However, the skies are cloudier for margarine, whose dollar sales dipped by 5% YoY to $1.65 billion, while unit sales declined a lesser 2% to 473 million.

Dairy butter blends also dropped by 3% YoY to $435 million, with unit sales declining 5% YoY to 97 million.

Unfortunately, “rain is currently falling” for dairy alternative spreads. This subcategory’s dollar sales swooned by 21% YoY to $99 million, with unit sales also not faring well, dropping 16% YoY to 18 million, Circana data shows.

Despite mixed results for butter, some processors are doing extremely well, are optimistic, and see sunny skies ahead.