Saturday, July 20, 2013
If July Ended Today...
July 2013 has a shot at being one of the warmest months on record but it will probably end up a bit short of that mark given the prospect of slightly cooler temperatures next week. Through yesterday, the average temperature for the month was 82.8 degrees, which is running just under five degrees above average for July. You can thank all of those warm overnight lows and the recent run of 90 degree days for that.
It isn't the warmest first 19 days of July on record, however. That honor belongs to last year, at 83.4 degrees. July 2012 ended up third warmest on record behind July 2011 (which had a very hot final ten days) and July 1994 (had a hot but not quite as hot as 2011 finish) in terms of warmest on record.
For us to break the record by month's end, we would need to have an average temperature of 81.8 degrees over the month's last 12 days, or 3.4 degrees above average. With temperatures much closer to average over the first half of next week, it looks like the odds of breaking the record may be kinda small. However, this July will end up being the fourth consecutive July where we have had a top 10 or warmer finish...and it wouldn't be surprising to see us end up in the top five once again.