NOAA recently released estimates of July average temperatures and put this year as the 7th warmest on record for Iowa. The featured chart presents an analysis of hourly temperature departures and percentiles based on hourly data for Des Moines. The plot clearly shows the most exceptional temperatures occurring during the night time hours, which indeed tells the story of this month having very warm low temperatures. This was a result of the record amount of humidity in the state this July helping to keep temperatures warm overnight. Based on some IEM calculations: this July was the warmest on record for low temperatures statewide, but only the 40th warmest for highs (since 1893). The average of those two values gets us to 7th warmest.

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Tags:   jul   jul11