Syracuse, NY -- In case you hadn’t noticed, the first month of summer has been extra hot in Central New York. The average temperature from June 21, when summer began, to July 21 was 73.9 degrees, 5.6 degrees warmer than the same stretch last year, according to the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University. That makes this summer’s first...
Syracuse, NY -- In case you hadn’t noticed, the first month of summer has been extra hot in Central New York.
The average temperature from June 21, when summer began, to July 21 was 73.9 degrees, 5.6 degrees warmer than the same stretch last year, according to the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University. That makes this summer’s first month the fourth hottest on record.
Even the low temperatures have been high. The average daily low was 63.9 degrees, 6.2 degrees above last year’s average daily low.
Summer’s heat was unmistakable during the first full week of July when temperatures reached or topped 90 degrees five days in a row. That last happened, the climate center said, was in August of 1991.
You might not have noticed it Friday, when 2.02 inches of rain fell, but there have been many dry days so far this summer. From June 29 to July 8 it didn’t rain at all. The last time things were so dry for so long this time of year was in 2003, the climate center said. And during the first month of last summer, the longest stretches without rain lasted only four days.
Friday was the wettest day so far this year. It brought more precipitation than the months of January or April and exactly equaled all the precipitation measured in Syracuse in February, according to National Weather Service records. (Of course, February’s precipitation fell mostly as snow, 38.1 inches of it. When melted, it yielded 2.02 inches of precipitation.)
Forecasters are expecting both heat and moisture in Central New York today with the high temperature near 90 degrees and humidity approaching 100 percent.
Contact Charles McChesney at cmcchesney@syracuse.com.