Warmest Month on Record

By Russell Russ

July 2013 was a record breaker across New England. Many locations experienced their warmest month ever. The same was said after July 2012, but that month came in at only Norfolk’s seventh warmest. This year, however, Norfolk was not to be left out. Monthly averages for Stamford, Bridgeport, Middletown, Hartford and Providence, all in the upper 70-degree range, were also record highs. Norfolk’s average monthly temperature in July didn’t even break 73 degrees, but that was still good enough to take the lead in our 979-month history of record-keeping. We can thank our forested landscape and our elevation for playing a huge role in keeping temperatures lower compared to our big-city neighbors.

The monthly average mean temperature of 72.7 degrees was 4.7 degrees warmer than normal for July. Norfolk’s other warmest months have also been in July: in 1955 with 72.1 degrees; in 2006 and 1935 with 71.7 degrees; in 2010 with 71.5 degrees; and in 1949 with 71.3 degrees.

The month’s high temperature of 90 degrees was observed on both July 18 and 19. These were the first days we reached 90 degrees 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 though we were within a couple of degrees on five separate days. The main reason why this was the warmest month despite having no daily record highs is that the nights did not cool off as they typically do.

The total precipitation for the month was 3.80 inches, 0.49 inches below normal. As June’s rainfall was 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. By the end of the month we were 1.56 inches off pace from 2011, our wettest year on record.

Weather observations are recorded by the Great Mountain Forest Corporation at Norfolk’s National Weather Service Cooperative Weather Observer Station, Norfolk 2 SW.