We average nine days for the whole year with highs at or above 90 degrees. July 2020 featured 8 of them including a whopping 97 degrees on the 9th! This was towards the end of a six day run of highs at or above 90 from the 5th through the 10th.
Despite that, no record high temps were recorded during the month.
Rochester's hottest temperature ever recorded for July is 102 degrees on July 9th and 10th, 1936. It’s very difficult to get to or above 100 now with the official reports recorded at the Greater Rochester International Airport.
Stronger winds from the west-southwest bring in a relative cooling influence from Lake Erie that can reach all the way to the airport. The near daily lake breeze that develops locally off of Lake Ontario can thwart that also when winds pick up during the afternoon out of the northeast.
22 days featured highs at or above 80 with only one day with a high in the 70s on the 13th.
Lots of great weather for the boat, the beach and the pool for sure!
This year tied for the third warmest of all-time with a mean temp of 75.6 degrees. (The mean is an average of all 31 highs and 31 lows for the month).
Most days were dry also with only 12 days featuring measurable rain. We ended up with 5.54 inches of rain for the month, about two and a quarter inches above average. This makes July 2020 nearly a top ten wettest on record.
The bulk of that rain fell on two days with 3.18 inches on the 11th and another 1.70 inches on the 16th.
We also saw the first confirmed tornado in Monroe County on the 29th since July 19, 2013 when a waterspout briefly moved over a small piece of land in Braddock Bay. This one on the 29th was estimated to be an EF0 tornado on the Enhanced Fujita Scale with max winds of 75 mph.
It lasted about four minutes while moving across four miles from Wheatland Center to Scottsville over Oatka Creek Park.
Lots of lawns have been sun-scorched and are dry but we are not in a drought situation. Recently, rains have been picking up so we’ll see what happens in August.