Recap of August 2024: First Month of 2024 To Be Cooler Than Average
Despite starting with highs in the 90s on five of the first days of the month, August 2024 was the first month since November 2023 with a cooler than average monthly temperature (1.0 degree below average). This was also the first August since 2013 to have a low temperature chillier than 60°. And the low of 57° on 8/21 was the chilliest August reading since 2007. It was also the first August since 2008 with two lows in the 50s.
This was the second rainiest month of 2024, with 7.02” measured (March had 9.06"). Two days picked up more than two inches (2.08" on 8/6, 2.29" on 8/18). Among all Augusts, August 2024 ranks as 27th wettest (out of 156 going back to 1869).
Five of the first six days of the month had highs in the 90s (8/1 had the hottest high of the month, 95°) and those days were five degrees warmer than average. Then the rest of the months was two-and-a-half degrees below average (8/28 was an outlier, with a high of 91°).
August 2024 and August 2023 had similar average temperatures (75.1° and 75.0°, respectively) and similar rainfall, but there was a big difference in the range between each month's coolest and hottest temperatures (38 degrees vs. 25 degrees, respectively).
On average, August is 4.1 degrees warmer than June, but this year both had the same temperature. This was the 13th year in which both months had very similar temperatures.
The sixth longest streak of highs of 80+, 38 days, ended on 8/6. This was the longest such streak since the summer of 2015, which had the longest on record (62 days).
After 31 of 38 days had lows in the 70s between June 30-Aug. 6, only five of the next 25 days (thru Aug. 31) had lows that warm.
After June-July 2024 was the third warmest on record, meteorological summer 2024 had a shot at being hottest of all time, but with August being one degree below average, the summer ended up as New York's 15th hottest (still a very high rank). If August had an average temperature, it would have made 2024's meteorological summer the third hottest.
Here are recaps of previous Augusts:
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