Well we put July to bed and start anew with August today. So far the start of the month has been uneventful and that's how it looks like the week should go, although we will have increasing heat during midweek. An approaching cold front should ignite scattered afternoon thunderstorms again late in the week and into the coming weekend.
Looking back July was a very hot month for us. The following is from a public information statement from the National Weather Service in Raleigh.
...JULY 2005 ONE OF THE WARMEST MONTHS ON RECORD...
JULY WAS ONE OF THE WARMEST MONTHS ON RECORD IN THE RALEIGH AREA. RECORDS FOR RALEIGH BEGAN IN 1887...AND HAVE BEEN KEPT AT THE RDU AIRPORT SINCE 1944.
THE AVERAGE TEMPERATURE FOR JULY 2005 WAS 82.2 DEGREES. THIS WAS ONLY A FEW TENTHS OF A DEGREE SHORT OF THE RECORD FOR THE WARMEST MONTH EVER...WHICH WAS 82.5 DEGREES IN JULY 1993.
JULY 2005 RANKS AS THE SECOND WARMEST JULY ON RECORD...AND TIES AUGUST 1900 FOR THE SECOND WARMEST MONTH EVER RECORDED. THE NORMAL AVERAGE TEMPERATURE FOR THE MONTH OF JULY IS 78.8 DEGREES. THERE WERE 3 DAYS THAT SET OR TIED RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURES DURING JULY 2005. THERE WERE 6 DAYS THAT SET OR TIED RECORD HIGH MINIMUM TEMPERATURES.
As a side note we did have a record number of 90 degree plus days in July. The previous record was 24 days. We had 26 days of 90 and above for the month of July. Yes it was HOT!!!!! Let's hope for a cooler August.
Mike
