John McGinley, Peak to Peak.

July 2019: This summary is a bit delayed owing to travel. July was a month dominated by monsoonal flow: 14 rainy days….12 of those with thunderstorms, one hail storm, and no windy days. Despite this rainfall fell a few tenths below normal. Temperatures were warmer than normal. We were fortunate that we had no days in the 90s, an indicator of high fire danger. There were no significant fires in the local area. 

Precipitation: Precipitation for the month was 2.39 inches, 0.37 inches below  normal. We had  one day of pea sized hail on the 15th. The 15th was also our wettest day with 0.58 inches. Other wet days were the 1st and the 20th. These three days were responsible for over half of our precipitation.

Temperature: Consistently warm days were the rule with no big extremes. We never reached 90F during the month, Lows were in the 40s and 50s. We ended up 2.8 degrees above normal with an average high of 79F and a low of 50F. Warmest day was 88F on the 11th with the lowest low of 44F on the 5th. Coolest high was 70F on the 22nd.

Winds:  No windy days this month (40+ mph).

Other Features: Mostly the monsoon and an occasional cold front.

Outlook for Aug:  Since we are halfway through the month an outlook is pretty easy. So far we have continued the frequent rains and warm temperatures associated with persistent monsoon flow. For the last half of the month we should see a continuation of moist upper level conditions bringing many showery days. About the 17th we should see a cold front that will enhance the showers. For the record the average August high is 74F with a low of 45F. We have one windy day. Rain typically totals 2.15 inches for the month.

(Originally published in the August 15, 2019, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)