*** Paul Piorek is editor and publisher of Paul's Local Weather Journal for southwestern Connecticut ... Paul is the on-air meteorologist at WICC 600 AM and 107.3 FM ... Paul is a New York Emmy award winner (2007), five-time Emmy nominee, and four-time winner of the Connecticut Associated Press Broadcasters' Association award for Best TV Weathercast (2006, 2008, 2009, 2012) ... Paul was voted Best Local Television Personality by the readers of Fairfield County Weekly Magazine (2012) ... Paul was inducted into the Housatonic Community College Hall of Fame and received the Distinguished Alumni Award (2012) ... The local weather journal is a two-time winner of the Communicator Award of Distinction (2012 & 2013) ... Paul is currently a full-time teacher of Earth Science and Mathematics in Fairfield ... Follow Paul on Twitter @PaulPiorekWICC ...

Saturday, August 2, 2014

'Seasonable' July 2014 Much Different Than Scorching July 2014

What a difference a year makes! I'm sure you remember last July, which was the hottest month ever on record at Sikorsky Memorial Airport in Stratford. There were two heat waves, including an unprecedented seven-day heat wave, and 11 days featured high temperatures at or above 90 degrees. The average temperature last July was 78.5 degrees, which was a whopping 4.2 degrees above normal.

Now, fast forward to this July. Incredibly, there was only one day when the mercury touched 90 degrees (July 8), and the average temperature for the month was 75.1 degrees. That was less than one degree above normal (74.3). However, the temperature never dropped below 60 degrees. The coolest temperature was 61 degrees on the mornings of July 6th and 30th.

Although the first half of the month featured average daily temperatures slightly above normal, cooler air arrived for the second half of the month. In fact, the average daily temperature was below normal five straight days from July 17th through July 21st. Eleven of the last 16 days of July were cooler-than-normal. On the flip side, only one of the first 16 days of the month was cooler-than-normal.

Interestingly, July's total rainfall measured just about three-and-a-half inches (3.46"), which was exactly normal for the month. There were nine days with measured rain, including three days in a row from July 2nd through July 4th. The greatest 24-hour rainfall (1.65") happened on July 14th and 15th. There were five days with at least a trace of rain, and 17 of the days were completely dry.

Paul