Dog Days of Summer Almost Over

Meteorologist Jim Woodmencey

The "Dog Days" of Summer will be coming to an end soon (see definition at end of article), as we have now reached the midway point of the Summer Season in early August.  Much like Groundhog's Day in early February marks the midway point of the Winter Season, we are currently sitting halfway between the Summer Solstice (June 21)  and the Autumnal Equinox (Sept. 22). And so far, the first half has been really dry, but maybe not quite as warm as you might have thought!

Sunny July day 2013, Photo by Doris Hargrave

Refer to the Summary table below for a quick rundown of June and July's weather. Data is  from the newly relocated Jackson Climate Station instrumentation, formerly located at the USFS Office and currently located just a short distance north of the old location, at the Jackson-Greater Yellowstone Visitor Center.

Historic data for the "normals" comes from the newly updated, and more complete, climate record for Jackson, encompassing data from 1905 to 2012. However, beware that there is an awful lot of missing days, months, and years in this data set prior to about 1949. Our most complete and accurate climate data in Jackson, WY is from about 1950 to 2010.

Weather Summary June and July
	June 2013	Normal
Average Hi Temp	74	74
Average Lo Temp	37	37
Mean for Month	55.5	55.5
Total Precipitation	0.32 in.	1.53 in.
	July 2013	Normal
Average Hi Temp	81	82
Average Lo Temp	43	42
Mean for Month	62	62
Total Precipitation	0.78 in.	1.26 in.

June
Temps were about as normal as can be and the hottest day,officially, was 86 degrees, although many thermometers hit 90 in town at the end of the month.
Precip though was more than an inch below normal in June 2013.

July
Temps were again right about normal for July, with average highs for the month a degree cooler than normal, and average lows for the month a degree warmer. Hottest day was also 86 degrees in July. We also broke a record for a cold high temp on July 28, 2013 with a high of only 67 degrees in town. Previous record for that date was 68 degrees back in 1950. 
Precip came up short again, by about a half an inch.

Total precip for both June and July in town was 1.10 inches. "Normal" precip total for those two months would be 2.79 inches, which means we are behind by 1.69 inches.  My sense is that there were areas that receive more rainfall in July, depending on where the thunderstorms dispensed their rain.

(Note: The "Dog Days of Summer" are considered to be the hottest part of the summer between July 3 and August 11, the period of time that extends from 20 days before to 20 days after the conjunction of the dog star Sirius and the Sun.).


Post by meteorologist Jim Woodmencey
Photo by Doris Hargrave