Bobby Magill mentions just about every NOAA stat for July — except the big one.
Bobby Magill writes:
Extremes in precipitation was the weather highlight of July, with last month ranking as the fifth-wettest July on record nationwide, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s monthly weather summary report released Tuesday.
July was also 30th-warmest month on record in the contiguous U.S. with the temperature 0.8°F above the 20th century average.
Last month brought extremes in weather to the extremes of the country: July was Alaska’s fifth-warmest on record, Florida’s wettest on record and Oregon’s driest on record. Oregon received only 0.03 inches of rainfall last month — 0.41 inches below its average. At the opposite extreme, Florida received 12.38 inches of rainfall last month — 4.38 inches above average.
The South’s Atlantic coast states all saw a July ranking among their top 10 wettest. Nationally, the precipitation average for July was 3.47 inches, or about 0.71 inches above the 20th century average.
Yet, drought is still gripping 45.6 percent of the contiguous U.S., where it is concentrated in the Central and Southern Great Plains and parts of the Southwest — areas that also saw greater-than-normal precipitation in July.
Thanks to ample monsoonal moisture, July in the drought-stricken Four Corners states — Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah — ranked as the 7th wettest on record regionally.
Temperature extremes were less common last month than precipitation extremes.
Salt Lake City and Reno, Nev., set records last month for their warmest July, and Massachusetts and Rhode Island set similar statewide records.
Record warm and cool daily highs and lows across the country in July were roughly the same, according to NOAA’s analysis.
For the year so far, 2013 is bringing drought and high temperatures to the West and plenty of rainfall and cooler weather to the East.
Nationally, six cities — all in the West — are seeing their temperatures rank in the top 10 warmest on record for the year through July, including Barrow, Alaska; Yakima, Wash.; Carson City, Nev.; Phoenix; and Las Vegas — all between 1.2 and 3.1°F above year-to-date average. Fresno, Calif., tops that list, with its year-to-date average temperature, 67.1°F, 3.1 degrees above normal.
Pacific Northwest cities, including San Francisco; Eugene, Ore., are seeing their driest year on record through July.
Eugene, the standout among those cities, has received only 9.7 inches so far this year — 15.7 inches below normal.
Thirteen cities in NOAA’s analysis are having their wettest years on record, mostly in the South and Upper Midwest. Asheville, N.C., tops that list, with its year-to-date rainfall 24.6 inches above normal.
That’s not the point. The point is that it’s an entirely unremarkable year and that this is the one thing that is left out of the reporting. It’s part of the ‘drunken weather’ meme that’s evolving in the media.
I’m surprised at you, Steve. I can understand you sleeping through the class where they discussed the distribution of extreme values, but every single time it was brought? That’s pretty extreme.
Team Cold is expected to win one every now and again, but just as one swallow does not a summer make this one anomalous value does not disprove the general trend. Just like that asthma correlation that you so laughably imply overturns all the accumulated medical knowledge about the disease, your proposed evidence does not support the weight of proof that you try to load upon it. The whole thing collapses into a smoking heap of failure.