2009.08.06
A quick look back at the cool July before August gets hot
With temperatures projected to push the mid 90s as early as Sunday, let's take a quick look back at our cool July before we move on.
First, here's a map of the United States from the National Climatic Data Center depicting July temperatures based on statewide averages. The darkest blue shade from Pennsylvania west to Iowa -- most of Big Ten country, plus West Virginia -- depict the coldest July on record in those six states, dating back to 1895. All the states in the next lighter shade of blue, including Virginia, had July temperatures among the 12 coldest on record, or "much below normal."
In Roanoke and Blacksburg, this is how July stacked up (some data problems at the National Weather Service led me to listing some different rankings earlier, but those have been squared away now and this is what stands for July).
* Tied for 7th coolest overall average temperature in Roanoke, dating to 1912, with an average of 73.3 degrees, equalling that of July 2000. (Top 10 list here)
* Fifth coolest average high temperature in Roanoke of 82.6 degrees. (Top 10 list here)
* Fourth coolest overall average temperature in Blacksburg, dating to 1952, of 68.4 degrees. (Top 10 list here)
* Third coolest average high temperature in Blacksburg of 78.2 degrees. (Top 10 list here)
The National Weather Service in Blacksburg also notes that having only one day at or above 90 degrees in July at Roanoke was the first time there had been so few 90-degree days since 1950. (Click here for a weather service summary about that and other facts about the cool July).
So that's the way it was in July.
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Two items: I had recent contact with 2 lifelong friends who still live in Massachusetts. They both complained big time about this (lack of) summer up there. Flowers are gorgeous, but vegetable gardens have completely failed in one area (extreme western Mass.). Farmers cannot harvest hay, you need several warm, dry days in a row. I looked up the June/July rainfall totals for Worcester, Mass. June: roughly 6.5 inches. July: almost 11 !!! 2nd item. I played golf this morning at Botetourt Country Club, first golfer on the course at 7 AM. I had checked radar before I left, and everything was over to our east, except for one tiny blob over in Montg. County, I think. Well, at 7:20 I had to stop playing because a steady rain came in. Well, it quickly turned into a downpour. By 7:45 there was standing water on some of the greens, a very rare event. When I was finally able to resume, I had to move my ball on the 5th green because there was still a "moving puddle" {micro-creek?} bisecting the green. AFWS showed that they received over an inch of rain.
Comment by Doug Griggs — August 6, 2009 @ 10:01 pm
doesn't look like this hot pattern is going to stick around long at all. back into the low 80s next week.
Comment by Brandon R. — August 7, 2009 @ 9:26 pm