Good Riddance to July

July is over, thank goodness.  Despite a blissfully cool start to the month (the highs on the first four days of the month were in the 80s), KSLC ended up with 10 days reaching 100 or higher and an average temperature of 83.3°F, good for 8th highest since 1874. 

Source: https://xmacis.rcc-acis.org/

Eighth might not seem too bad but it is higher than anything observed prior to 2000 (the 20th century record is 81.2°F in 1960).  The 21st century climate at KSLC is like Katie Ledecky.  She owns the 20 fastest times in the 1500-m freestyle swim, and the 21st century climate at the airport owns the 16 warmest Julys (based on mean temperature).  

The airport also received only .08" of rainfall.  There have been four previous Julys with only a trace, so this isn't a record, but it made a typically dry July even drier.  

Since I get a lot of flak about the local conditions at the airport measurement site, I'll add that this July was the 7th warmest at the Bountiful Bench COOP site, which has continuous records back to 1975.  The 15th warmest Julys there have all occurred since 2000.  

Long term trends in July are especially obvious because there's a lot less weather variability in northern Utah in July than in other months.  As a result, the long-term trend is easier to see given that there is less weather "noise."  

I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to a cloudy, rainy day, whenever that happens.