Thursday, August 1, 2013

July's Blistering Numbers

July is now in the record books.  Here's a quick unofficial summary for the Salt Lake Airport.  I suspect official numbers will be coming down from the National Weather Service today.  In celebration, I'll go all in and plot graphs today back to 1928 rather than 1948 as I usually do.

  • The monthly mean temperature was 84.1ºF, 5.4ºF above average and the highest observed.  The previous record of 84.0ºF was set in 2007.  
Source: http://xmacis.rcc-acis.org
  • The mean temperature for June–July was 79.8ºF, the highest observed, breaking the old record of 78.7ºF in 2007.  
http://xmacis.rcc-acis.org
  • Every daily minimum temperature during the month was above the long-term average for the day (green in the plot below indicates the average range of temperatures for the day, with the bars what was observed).  In fact, you have to go back to June 23rd to find a day with a below average minimum temperature.  The streak continues as we head into August.  
Source: NWS
So, be sure to pick up your official Hottest Month Ever T-shirt at a retailer near you.

At this point, I'm debating whether or not to root for this to continue so we can break the record for the summer, or if I'd rather have cooler weather return.  If we could have a hot summer and then a snowy winter, I'd take that.  

2 comments:

  1. What happened in July 1993?? -Mario Majcen

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    1. I lived in Idaho at the time... but I do remember that summer. There was a persistent trough over the Pacific Northwest states (WA/OR/ID) which I am pretty sure was responsible for the cool weather in SLC also.

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