Today in New York Weather History: July 20

 

1928 (Friday)

High temperatures over the past four days: 90°-89°-90°-89° (today).  Cooler air moved in this evening after a strong thunderstorm dumped 0.74" of rain between 6-7 PM.

 

1935 (Saturday)

For the fourth year in a row the high was in the 90s on July 19 and 20.  And today, 1.07" of rain thundered down in just ten minutes time during a severe thunderstorm from 2:50-3 PM.  Between 2:00 and 3:00 the temperature tumbled from 85° to 68°.

 

 

1959 (Monday)

This would be the rainiest day of the year, with 1.80" measured at Central Park.  Most of it (1.57") fell during a severe thunderstorm between 4:00 and 5:00 in the afternoon.

 

1969 (Sunday)

The day that Man landed on the Moon was overcast and damp in New York, with winds out of the east, 0.32" of rain, and a high/low of 71°/66°.  Most the of the day's rain fell between 9-11 PM.  This was the first day of a ten-day streak in which every day but one had highs in the 70s.  The average high during this stretch was 76°, eight degrees cooler than average.  Rain would fall on seven of the days, totaling 3.29".

 

1975 (Sunday)

Two years after 1.73" fell on this date, 1.74" fell today.  In both instances, the rain was produced by strong thunderstorms.  In 1973, 1.65" of the rain fell between 10 PM and midnight.  This year 1.10" of the rain poured down in the hour between 6-7 PM, and 0.54" fell between 10 PM and midnight.  This was also the third Sunday in a row to have more than an inch of rain (7/6 had 1.78", 7/13 had 1.65").

 

1980 (Sunday)

The temperature soared to a record-breaking 101°.

 

 

1982 (Tuesday)

During a midday thunderstorm, 0.58" of rain fell from noon-1 PM; in a five-minute period between 11:57 AM-12:02 PM 0.32" poured down.  This storm snapped a four-day heat wave.

 

2008 (Sunday)

The 0.01" of rain that fell today in the late evening was just the second time measurable rain fell on this date in the past 19 years.  During the daytime hours, the temperature rose to 94°, the fifth day in a row with highs in the 90s.  

 

2012 (Friday)

Two days after a scorching high of 100°, this afternoon's temperature fell into the low-60s (the day's official high of 72° occurred in the wee hours of the morning).  Light rain and drizzle fell for much of the day (just 0.02" was measured).

 

2013 (Saturday)

Today, with a high of 93°, was the seventh day in row with a high in the 90s, making this the longest heat wave since 2002 (when there was one of eight days, and another of nine days).  Today was also the third day in a row with a low of 80° or warmer.  Of New York's twenty-two major heat waves (seven days or longer), this one had the highest mean temperature.  Although its average high of 94.6° ranked it 11th, it had the warmest low of any of them (79.0°).  The resultant mean temperature of 86.8° placed it 0.1 degree ahead of a heat wave in August 1988.

 

 

2015 (Monday)

With a high/low of 94°/82°, today's mean temperature would be the hottest of the year.  This was despite the fact that four other days had hotter high temperatures.

 

 

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Comments

[William]

2013 - this was the tenth 90° day of the month. the fourth July in a row to have 10 or more 90° days. first time in 3 decades we've had 4 Julys in a row with at least 10 days in the 90s. however there were fifty 90° days during this stretch compared to 46 during the previous stretch.

[Rob]

And the first, and only other time this has happened, was in the 1950s (1952-1955), when there were also 50 such days in total.

[William]

2017 - the low temperatures over the past six days were 68-68-73-73-77-77 (today). today's high was 94°. since 1990, only 1991 had a hotter high temperature on this date (the high reached 100° back then).

[William]

2010 and 2011 are the only consecutive Julys with fourteen or more 90°+ days and there have never been consecutive Augusts with ten or more 90°+ days.

[William]

today in 2019, JFK (with a high of 99°) was warmer than both CPK (95°) and Newark (98°). I was surprised that this happened, since, in a lot of cases during the summer time, JFK always ends up being colder than CPK and Newark, due to the wind blowing from the Atlantic ocean at times. how often does a summer day occur where JFK ends up being warmer than either CPK or Newark?

[Ken K. in NJ]

Hi Rob. How unusual is it to have 3 consecutive days (eg. 2013) where the temperature does not go below 80 degrees?

(I did search to see if you've done a study on this, but if you did I couldn't find it.)

Thanks, as always.

[Rob]

Hi Ken, there were two other 3-day streaks before this one; they occurred more than 100 years earlier: Aug. 9-11, 1896 and July 5-7, 1908.