SUNBURY -- Valley residents enjoyed mostly ideal weather conditions this past July, with slightly above normal temperatures, said meteorologist Jon Pacheco, of AccuWeather in State College.
Expect the pattern of normal "or slightly higher than normal" temperatures to continue in August, he said on Friday.
The average high in August in the Valley is 72.8 degrees. The normal average low is 60 degrees.
"August will begin with a brief mid-week heat wave and we'll approach 90 degrees. But by next weekend temperatures will cool off to the low 80s," Pacheco said.
"Typically, average monthly temperatures in August are a few degrees cooler than July, mostly because of cooler days at the end of the month," he explained.
Temperatures this past July averaged about eight-tenths of a degree above the normal 73.3 degrees, Pacheco noted. "It was definitely a warm and dry month," he summarized. "Most of our highs were in the 80s, which is about normal."
The usual amount of precipitation in July is 3.69 inches; this year, there was only 2.79 inches of rain.
The month's high temperature was 92 degrees, on July 19 and 20. The all-time July high in this area is 102 degrees, on July 9 and 10, 1936.
The month's low was 54 degrees, on July 28. The all-time low is 42 degrees, on July 6, 1979.
Pacheco cautioned that "as we move into August, people who travel and take vacations should understand that our peak hurricane season is at the end of the month, into September."
August is also a month with a number of weird weather facts, hurricanes included.
n The greatest rainfall amount in a year was recorded in Assam, India, 1880-1881: 1,041 inches
n The hottest temperature in the United States ever recorded most likely occurred in Death Valley, California during 43 consecutive days between July 6 and August 17, 1917. During the days, the temperature was over 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
n The first ever recorded hurricane in the USA was in August 1559. It drove five Spanish ships ashore at Pensacola, Fla.
n On Aug. 3, 1970, Celia, one of the worst hurricanes on record hit Texas. Celia made landfall near Port Aransas, but Corpus Christie bore the brunt of the storm. Reportedly, winds reached 125 mph, gusting to 161 mph, and caused severe damage to the city. Peak gusts were estimated to have reached 180 mph at Aransas Pass and even 250 miles inland at Del Rio, the hurricane's winds gusted to 89 mph. Celia killed 11, injured 466, caused $454 million damage and destroyed 8,950 homes along the Texas' coast.
n Measuring category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale, Hurricane Andrew, a category 5 storm, hit southern Florida in 1992, making landfall at Homestead, Fla., where 165 mph winds gusted to 181 mph. Forty-one people were killed by Andrew, more than 250,000 were left homeless and more than 125,000 homes were destroyed. Andrew is still the costliest hurricane ever to strike the USA.
n Did you know that this part of the country once had snow in August? The year was 1895, and snow flurries affected parts of Pennsylvania, New York and New England with snow observed as far south as Hartford, Conn.
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July heat slightly above normal
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