The abnormally hot month of July has come to a close on another unseasonably hot day with evening summer storms. Only seven days this month were below average! The average high starts at 90 degrees and on July 25th lowers to 89 degrees. Four days were “normal” days, meaning we hit the average high on the nose!
As for the rest of the month, we were burning up in the 90’s and a few days neared the triple digits! On July 21st we did hit the magical number, 100, and that was thankfully the only day that reached 100. That same weekend we hit 100, we had dangerous heat indices surpassing 110 degrees, which warranted excessive heat warnings. Over the weekend of July 20th and 21st, the city of Richmond, Petersburg and Louisa County opened their cooling centers for residents to find relief from the extreme heat. Following that weekend, we even started that Monday, the 22nd, with a heat advisory and heat indices surpassing 105 degrees. To understand the heat even more, the high hit or exceeded 90 degrees 22 days out of the month of July.
In addition to the heat we had nearly 6 inches of rainfall with minimal flood issues. We normally have 4.35 inches of rainfall in the month of July.
Now, we enter August with a stormy pattern, as we will have scattered showers and storms and the threat extends into the first weekend of August. Temperatures look to reenter the 90’s in the first full week of August as a ridge of high pressure approaches from the West. This means another round of extreme heat and mainly dry days.
