Weather! One more cool day before the heat returns
Sunday’s high of 80 (that’s not a typo) marked the first time since June 8 that the temperature failed to get above 80 degrees. It’s a rather inauspicious start to August considering how we ended a record-setting July.
Sunday’s high of 80 (that’s not a typo) marked the first time since June 8 that the temperature failed to get above 80 degrees. It’s a rather inauspicious start to August considering how we ended a record-setting July. July’s average temperature of 82.8F makes it the warmest July on record; the old record of 82.4F was set back in 1993. It was the second warmest of ANY month on record from any year; the only warmer month was August 1900, which had an average temperature of 82.9F. When you include June’s average of 81.1F, you have a June-July average of 81.9F, the warmest of any June-July period on record. As I mentioned before, we’ve already had ten days of 100F or more, which breaks the old record of nine from 1954. Seven of these days fell in July, setting the record for most 100-degree days in any month; six was the previous record, set in July 1977 and tied in July 1993. Additionally, we only received 1.19” of precipitation in July, making it the fourth driest July on record. When combined with the 0.82” we received in June, the 2.01” we’ve received marks the driest June-July period on record. The previous record was 2.39”, set in 1954.
I’m also keeping my eye on the tropics again. A system dubbed Invest 91L, located about 950 miles west of the Cape Verde Islands, is beginning to get organized and is currently given a 90% chance to develop into a tropical system by the National Hurricane Center. The system still lacks an area of organized circulation, but is in an area that is certainly favorable for development over the next few days. I wouldn’t be surprised to see they had started issuing advisories on Tropical Depression Four by my next update.
Locally, an area of high pressure situated north of us is causing an easterly flow, bringing in a lot of moist Atlantic air to the region. This means we’ve got a deck of low, overcast cloud cover, bringing some light rain showers over the eastern parts of the city. These will finally start to break as the high pressure center moves offshore, but that likely won’t happen until overnight Monday night. In the meantime, Monday will be very similar to Sunday, with cooler temperatures and overcast skies for most of the day, along with a chance of rain at some point during the day. Highs should peak in the mid 80s, dropping to the upper 60s overnight tonight.
As the high finally starts to clear out on Tuesday, another ridge of high pressure starts moving in from the southwest. Clouds from the easterly flow will stick around, but the temperatures will start climbing back into the lower 90s. Rain chances on Tuesday should be minimal, but I can’t rule out a stray shower or thunderstorm. Tuesday night lows will fall into the low 70s.
The ridge building into the area is going to be responsible for record heat over the Southeast and Gulf Coast, and will likely bring some of that same record heat back to the Mid-Atlantic later on this week. I don’t think our list of 100-degree days this year is going to stop at ten. This summer goes to eleven!
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Weather Dan
Dan Goff is now a two-time former Richmonder, having departed the River City yet again in favor of southwest Virginia, where he is working on degrees in geography and meteorology at Virginia Tech. Have a question about the weather or weather-related phenomena?
Notice: Comments that are not conducive to an interesting and thoughtful conversation may be removed at the editor’s discretion.
Will you still continue as Weather Dan for rvanews now that you’ve moved?
Yep, Weather Dan is sticking with us, at least for the time being.
Well of course the warm weather has to come back. The Watermelon Festival is this weekend. Can’t have a tolerable day during that annual shindig.