So over the heat!

I don’t know about you, but I’m so over the heat! Of course, in December when I’m upset because it’s been 50 degrees for several days, folks will need to remind me about being “over” the heat.

July has been a hot month no matter how you look at it. We’ve had five straight days of temperatures at or over 100 degrees. That’s never happened at RDU since record keeping began in 1944.

Each day when I put together my forecast and look at the models repeating the same heat as the weeks before, I wonder when this weather pattern will finally break. I know this much to be true, this week the pattern of intense heat isn’t expected to break, but at least I don’t have a day with a 100 degree high expected.

Looking back at July’s numbers, we saw three days with average highs, two days below average, 15 days in the 90s and nine days at or over 100. July is overall our warmest month when you look at our 30-year averages. Normal highs for July range beteen 88 and 90 degrees. This July has been far from normal!

Moving into August, our average highs start trending downward. We start the month with normal daytime highs in the upper 80s and slowly dip into the mid 80s late in the month. Of course, there is no guarantee we will see normal temperatures in August. Looking at our records, it shows August to be a month where 100 degree heat isn’t out of the question. We still haven’t beaten that all-time high of 105 at RDU. That record was set Aug. 15, 1988.

As we wrap up the month of July this weekend and move into August next week, we won’t be able to say good-bye to the heat, but if Mother Nature would allow us to return to normal with a daytime highs of 88, I think it would more feel like spring than summer.