It's Official

We've been talking about the cool July temperatures for some time now... and it's official, it has been one for the record books.

The NWS in Sioux Falls put out this statement:

"AT THE REGULAR REPORTING CLIMATE SITES OF SIOUX FALLS... SIOUX CITY... AND HURON... JULY AVERAGED OUT WITHIN THE TOP FIVE COOLEST JULYS ON RECORD... GOING BACK TO THE LATE 1800S.

THE FOLLOWING ARE THE STATISTICS FOR EACH SITE...
****AT SIOUX FALLS... IT WAS THE 4TH COOLEST JULY ON RECORD WITH AN AVERAGE TEMPERATURE OF 68.6 DEGREES OR 4.4 DEGREES BELOW NORMAL. THE AVERAGE DAILY HIGH OF 79.5 DEGREES TIED THE YEAR OF 1950 FOR THE THIRD COOLEST AVERAGE MAXIMUM ON RECORD IN JULY. THE COOLEST JULY ON RECORD WAS IN 1992 WITH A CHILLY AVERAGE OF 65.5 DEGREES.
****AT SIOUX CITY... IT WAS THE 5TH COOLEST JULY ON RECORD WITH AN AVERAGE TEMPERATURE OF 70.2 DEGREES... 4.4 DEGREES BELOW NORMAL. MOST OF THIS WAS DUE TO THE AVERAGE DAILY LOW OF 58.7 DEGREES... WHICH WAS THE SECOND COOLEST AVERAGE MINIMUM ON RECORD IN JULY. THE COOLEST JULY ON RECORD WAS IN 1992 WITH AN AVERAGE OF 68.6DEGREES.
****AT HURON... IT WAS ALSO THE 5TH COOLEST JULY ON RECORD WITH AN AVERAGE TEMPERATURE OF 68.5 DEGREES OR 4.9 DEGREES BELOW NORMAL. THE COOLEST JULY ON RECORD WAS AGAIN IN THE VERY COOL JULY OF1992 WITH AN AVERAGE OF 65.1 DEGREES."


Similar story from the NWS office in Aberdeen:

"During the month of July, temperatures across much of the Northern Plains, including portions of South Dakota and west-central Minnesota were well below normal . Aberdeen, Watertown and Pierre all ended up being in the top 10 for the coldest Julys on record.
A few other interesting heat related tidbits from this “cool” July are listed below:
---Aberdeen has failed to reach 90 F this July. This is only the third time this has occurred since 1893 (the other years were 1915, 1962, and 1996).
---The highest temperature recorded in Watertown this July has been 83 F. This is the “coolest” monthly maximum temperature ever recorded in July. Records in Watertown date back to 1893.
---Like the summer of 2008, Pierre has yet to record a 100 F temperature during the summer of 2009. In fact, the last time Pierre reached 100 F was on 4 September 2007. Since 1933, Pierre has never experienced back to back summers when the temperature failed to reach 100 F."

It was the 5th coldest July in Aberdeen with an average temperature of 67.4 degrees.
In Watertown it was the 4th coolest July, averaging 65.7 degrees.
Pierre had an average high of 70.4 degrees, which was the 4th coldest on record.


I've gotta just say brr - but it has been nice to enjoy the mild temperatures - I love fall weather, so for me, this has been great! If you miss the summer weather however - enjoy tomorrow - here's a look at one particularly "warm" model:The maroon colored area is forecasting a high near 97 degrees . . . so watch out central SD! You'll need the fans and AC cranked up to deal with that heat since it'll feel like such a shock compared to what we've seen as far as temperatures go.

~KDLT Meteorologist Jesse Ritka