July 2020 is a month we’ll be talking about for some time here in Buffalo.

What You Need To Know

  • July 2020 was the hottest month ever recorded in Buffalo

  • Only one day finished with a below-average high temperature

  • Lots of heat is still expected through August

We started the month with amazing summer weather heading into the 4th of July weekend. There was a combo of sunshine, low humidity, and hot temperatures. On July 3rd we hit 90 degrees, which turned out to be the first day in a stretch of 90+ degree days that set a new record for such a streak.

Ultimately we had eight consecutive days of 90 or above, which broke the previous record of seven days set in 1988. On average, Buffalo sees about three to four 90+ degree days over an entire summer.

On July 9th, Buffalo hit 98 degrees, which shattered the previous record for the day of 92 degrees. It was also the second-hottest temperature ever recorded in Buffalo and hottest since 1953, almost 70 years ago. The hottest reading ever recorded in Buffalo is 99 degrees set in 1948. Along with the 9th, we also at least tied or broke the daily record high on the 7th and 10th.

Lake Erie’s water temperature was also running in the mid to upper 70s for the majority of the month, which set new daily records as well. The temperature is recorded from the Buffalo Water Treatment Plant at a depth of 30ft.

On the 13th Buffalo had a high of only 77 degrees, which turned out to be the one and only day where the high temperature was below average. After that we had 18 straight days in the 80s that we closed out the month with.

The average monthly temperature finished at 77.6 degrees. We get this number by finding the average daily temperature then average that out over the entire month. The previous record was 76.2 degrees set in 1921, which means we shattered the previous record by 1.4 degrees. That’s a lot when you’re talking about an entire month’s worth of data. This is starting to look like a trend with now four of the ten warmest Julys now in the last decade.

Looking ahead at August, while I don’t expect records to go down in droves like July, I still think we’re looking at above average temperatures more days than not. More reason to get outside and enjoy Western NY’s and Buffalo’s amazing summers!