This July has been a very warm month, to say the least, in central New York.

What You Need To Know

  • Tuesday was the 43rd-consecutive day with a high of at least 80 degrees

  • This ties a 71-year-old record for longest streak of consecutive 80+ degree days

  • We fell one degree short of breaking this record on Wednesday; the high was 79

The vast majority of days in the second month of our meteorological summer this year have featured unseasonably warm high temperatures. You probably don’t need me to tell you this, as your fans and air conditioners have probably been running nearly nonstop for the last several weeks.

But it’s not just the above average temperatures that have made the last several weeks notable. 

On Wednesday, we nearly broke the all-time record here in Syracuse for the longest stretch of consecutive days featuring a high temperature of at least 80 degrees. It would have been the 44th day in a row meeting that criterion, but we fell one degree shy with a high of only 79.

The streak we did attain — 43 days — ties a record set more than 70 years ago.

The last time we had such a warm stretch this long was back in 1949!

Believe it or not, this is not the only record in jeopardy that we have been watching lately.

Earlier this month, we set a record for the second-longest heat wave (consecutive days above 90 degrees) at seven days — one day shy of tying the first place record set in 1973.

However, July 2020 is still on track to be the warmest month of all-time on record here in the Salt City, with records dating back to late 1902.

It remains to be seen if the summer of 2020 will be one of the warmest on record, but we will certainly keep our eyes on the observations and the record books as we go through August to make that determination.