Looking back at June, and ahead to July…
The average temperature so far this June has run about three degrees above the long term average of 76.4F. This month has within nearly a degree of being the hottest June ever in Birmingham on average. We average 351 cooling degree days in the month. June 2009 will blow that out of the water, with around 430 before all is said and done.
The hottest temperature observed this month was the 96F observed Saturday. The hottest it has ever been in June in the Magic City was 106F on June 29, 1931. 3.03 inches of rain had fallen through Sunday morning. This is slightly below the average of 3.78 inches. 12.09 inches of rain fell in June 1900.
As you would expect, July is the hottest month of the year in Birmingham. The average daytime high is 90.6F. The average overnight low is 69.7. There really isn’t much difference on average between July and August. The hottest day ever in Birmingham, occurred on July 29, 1930, when the mercury hit a sizzling 107F. The temperature has reached 105F or higher on 16 occasions in Birmingham. Eleven of those times were observed in the month of July. The coolest reading ever observed in the Magic City in July was 51F back on July 15, 1967.
July is not one of our sunniest month with 59% of possible sunshine on average. Six months are sunnier. Rain is usually observed just over twelve days in the month and thunderstorms occur on nearly twelve days in the month, both tops for the year. The mercury reaches 90F or higher on 17.3 days on average in July. On average, 5.09 inches of rain falls during the month. The most ever observed is 20.12 in July 1916. That is also the wettest month ever in Birmingham history. In 1983, 0.30 fell during the month, the driest July ever.
