Looking Back at New York Weather: July 9
Today marks the anniversary of New York's hottest temperature of all time, 106° in 1936. The previous record was 104° in August 1918. And since 1936, the hottest reading has also been 104°, recorded in July 1977 and July 2011. On that sizzling day in '36, when the mercury reached 106° at 4 PM the relative humidity was 36% - producing a heat index of 119°!
1902 (Wednesday)
Today was the only day of the year with a high in the 90s, making this the only summer (going back to 1869) with just one 90-degree reading. And the mercury went no higher than 90°.
1920 (Friday)
The high today was 84°, and followed three days that had highs of 83° (yesterday), 82° and 81°.
1937 (Friday)
For the second year in a row the high reached triple digits on 7/9, the first time a high in the 100s occurred on the same date in back-to-back years (it would be repeated tomorrow - the last time it happened). Although today's high was six degrees lower than last year, its low of 79° was two degrees warmer (the afternoon's heat index peaked at 109°).
1964 (Thursday)
The day was chilly, wet and windy as 1.09" rain fell, most of it before 7 AM. Although this wasn't a huge amount, it was enough to set a record for the date, breaking the previous record from 1935 by 0.06". Today's high of 63° was 21 degrees below average, and was just two degrees above the day's low temperature. And today's rainfall was nearly identical to the amount that fell yesterday in the PM hours (1.05").
1981 (Thursday)
This would be the hottest day of the summer as the high reached 96° after a morning low of 80°.
1992 (Thursday)
0.50" of rain fell in an hour during the wee hours of the morning (2-3 AM). Then later in the day the high hit 91°, the first reading in the 90s since May 23.
1993 (Friday)
The day after a high of 100°, today's high topped it by one degree.
1994 (Saturday)
Today's high was 92°, making this the fifth year in a row in which the high reached 90° or above on this date.
2007 (Monday)
Today's high/low of 92°/76° made it the hottest day of the summer - relatively mild considering how torrid summers can be. (And the day's high was only 20 degrees above the high of 72° on Jan. 6.)
2020 (Thursday)
Today was the 21st consecutive day with a high of 80° or warmer, which would be the longest such streak of the year (there would also be an 18-day streak from July 17-August 3).
2021 (Friday)
12 hours after the City was flooded by a torrential downpour during yesterday’s evening rush hour, heavy rain from the remnants of hurricane Elsa made this morning's commute a challenge. 1.79” of rain fell, largely between 3-9 AM. (Elsa brought significantly more rain over Long Island, largely in the three to four-inch range.) Then tonight between 10:30-11:00 one more heavy shower moved through, adding 0.27" to the day's total. And like yesterday's amount (2.27"), today's 2.06" was a record for the date (easily breaking the old record of 1.09").
In the past ten days (Since 6/30), seven days had rain that totaled 7.44”, equal to what fell in the previous eleven weeks. Between yesterday afternoon and later this morning, 4.06” of rain was measured in Central Park. This was the greatest 24-hour total since April 30, 2014, when 4.97” poured down.
2021 - this was the second day in a row with a daily record setting amount of rain. this was the second year in a row to have a hurricane visit New York on the second Friday in July (Elsa this year, Fay last year). with 6.52” of rain so far this month, this was easily the rainiest first nine days of any July on record. the old record was from 1901, which had 4.73” of rain in first nine days of the month. in extreme stark contrast, none of the three Julys that preceded this July had even three fourths of an inch of rain in first nine days of the month.
Posted by: William | 07/09/2021 at 11:26 PM
2021 was only the fourth year (joining 1901, 1997 and 2000) with consecutive July days to have a combined total of at least 4.33” of rain. in 2021’s case, 2.06” of rain fell today (of this amount, 0.27” fell just before midnight while the rest fell in the AM hours) and 2.27” of rain fell yesterday. 2021 joined 1889 and 1897 as the only three Julys with at least two days of at least two inches of rain.
Posted by: William | 07/10/2021 at 10:40 AM