Warmest Month on Record
By Russell Russ
July 2013 was a record breaker. Many locations throughout the Northeast recorded their warmest months on record. We heard that after July 2012 as well, but at that time Norfolk had only recorded its seventh warmest month. Norfolk was not to be left out this year and came in with its warmest month, since 1932 anyway. Stamford, Bridgeport, Middletown, Hartford and Providence all recorded monthly average record highs, all in the upper seventy degree range. Norfolk’s average monthly temperature in July didn’t even break 73 degrees, but it was still good enough to be our new warmest month. We can thank our forested landscape and our elevation for playing a huge role in keeping our temperatures lower here compared to our big city neighbors.
The month’s high temperature of 90 degrees was observed on both July 18 and 19. These were the first days we reached 90 or above in 2013. The month’s low temperature of 53 degrees was observed on July 25. There were no daily temperature records this month, but we were within a couple of degrees on five separate days. Many other Connecticut locations were similar in this regard. The main reason why we all made the warmest month with few or no daily record highs is that the nights did not cool off as they typically do.
The monthly average mean temperature of 72.7 degrees was 4.7 degrees warmer than normal for July and now holds the distinction of being the warmest month in our 979 month history. Norfolk’s other warmest months have also been in July and they were 1955 with 72.1, 2006 and 1935 with 71.7, 2010 with 71.5 and 1949 with 71.3 degrees.
The total precipitation for the month was 3.80 inches, 0.49 inches below normal. After June being 8.59 inches above normal I think we can handle being a little below this month. There were six thunderstorms observed at the weather station this month, but none were particularly powerful.
Through July this year, the total precipitation amount for the year was 34.20 inches. This is 4.21 inches above normal for this period. Through July we were 1.56 inches off pace from 2011, our wettest year on record.
