by Barney Leach
July 2021 was generous on rainfall with 4.92 inches of rain and 13 days with measureable rainfall. Our greatest one-day total of 1.40 inches on July 11. Normal rainfall for July is 2.62 inches.
Our total rainfall for the year stands at 33.21 inches. Normal through July is 27.35 inches. Our record wettest July was 8.89 inches in 2007 and record driest was 0.02 inch in 1997.
July was also generous with below normal temperatures. We had a high of 97 degrees on July 28 and a low of 64 degrees on July 11. High, low and average temperatures for July each were just one degree hotter than high, low and average for June. Normally July temperatures run about four or five degrees hotter than June temperatures.
Looking ahead to August
August and July tend to flip-flop back and forth as our hottest month of the year but July takes the title more often because of longer daylight hours. August, however, wins out on the hottest day of the year more often since temperatures tend to peak around the mid-summer point of August 6.
For the ten-year period from 1997 to 2006, temperatures peaked at an average high of 98 degrees on August 5 and 6, mid-summer on the dot. Also, for that period, summer came in at average high of 92 degrees and went out at an average high of 91 degrees.
In recent years, August has pushed July out of the driest month slot with a normal of 2.37 inches of rain. Our record wettest August was 9.25 inches in 2008 and record driest August was no rain at all in 2011 and 2019.
The above rainfall and temperature data was recorded by Barney Leach, former co-op weather volunteer for the National Weather Service and former weather volunteer for channel 8 in Dallas, channel 10 in Waco and radio station KNES in Fairfield.
