Needed rainfall came late in the month
One of the hottest Julys on record had people flocking to ice cream shops, like this one in Davison
/ File
The July numbers are in and it was hot. According to the National Weather Service, In Flint, where records have been kept since the late 1800s, the month saw an average temperature of 76.1 degrees, ranking it the 6th hottest July of all time.
The hottest, July of 1921 with an average temperature of 18 degrees. For the Tri-Cities and average of 76.4 ranks it 3rd behind only July of 1916 and 1921. The summer of 2011 ranks 4th, tied with 1935. Detroit also saw the 2nd warmest July on record.
Flint had 14 days of 90 degrees or more in the month of July, which exceeds the average for a typical year which is 12.2 days. The hottest day was July 17th when the temperature reached 101, and the second hottest day was July 4th at 100 degrees.
Data for the summer so far has Flint tied with last summer for the 7th warmest at an average of 72.7 degrees and the Tri-Cities looking at the 4th warmest summer on record so far at 73.2 degrees average temperature.
These numbers may moderate some as while outlooks for the month of August are calling for above average temperatures it looks like the overall trend may be only slightly above average, some welcome relief.
Flint was able to make up some of it's rain deficit during the month of August, measuring 3.55" officially, which is .015" above normal.
A couple more above normal months will be needed, however, to completely make up the deficit, but the rain in the past week may have been enough to move the area out of "drought" classification. The weekly statistics from the national drought monitoring service come out tomorrow.
According to the climate date from the National Weather Service, Flint, Saginaw and Detroit have experienced the warmest January to July period on record to date.
