We turn the page on the calendar to a new month today, but it looks like we’re facing more of the same heat and humidity to start August that we felt for the vast majority of July.  Yes, it certainly was a hot July for us and the electric bills are evidence of that as the air conditioning has been in almost constant use in most homes fortunate to have it.  We talked a little yesterday about how July 2012 ranks among all-time Rochester records and now that the month is over, we can look at the final figures.  As it turns out, the month ranks fourth among the warmest in Rochester history with a mean temperature of 77.1°.  We typically experience nine high temperatures of 90° or greater in Rochester in a calendar year, but so far we’ve had 16 and we may continue that toasty, warmer than normal trend in August.  Here’s more climate data:

We just completed the fourth warmest July on record and the warmest overall month since July 1955.

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We’ve certainly experienced quite a variety of weather conditions in the first two weeks of February.  Here we are at the halfway mark in the month and we’ve felt both the chill of some brutally cold arctic air and some warm south winds that have helped us melt some snow, most of that just in the last week!  So far this month, seven days have featured subzero low temperatures, the coldest reading in Rochester being -13° in the 8th.  We’ve also been above freezing in each of the last three days (not including today) with the warmest readings being 41° on Sunday the 13th.  Snowfall has been sparse this month so far, with only 1.1″ being measured in Rochester.  The highest one day total in the first half of the month was only 0.6″ on the 6th. 

Despite the recent warm spell, temperatures have been slightly cooler than average this month while little snow has fallen.

Things will remain mild for the next couple of days as this warm air mass lingers in the region.  In fact, high temperatures will get progressively warmer through Thursday before a potent cold front will swing through the Upper Midwest, pulling some cold air in from the northwest and creating some strong northwest winds that may gust beyond 40 miles per hour.  There will also be a little snow or some light snow showers early Friday before things dry out for the latter portion of the day and for the bulk of the weekend.

Posted under climate