United States Was Warm In July, But Not As Out Of Whack As Rest Of World

Early data suggests on a world-wide basis, July, 2023 will take the prize as the Earth's hottest month on record. I'm awaiting more data to confirm that.  

State by state temperature rankings for July, 2023
The number 129 denotes the hottest on record.
If there were any states with a zero, that would be 
coldest on record. But the chilliest state relative
to average, North Dakota, only had its 27th
coldest July out of the past 129. 

But at least we got some info on the United States as a while: The verdict: The U.S. experienced its eleventh warmest July on record. The data comes from NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information.

Most of the heat was concentrated in the West, Southwest, Texas, Florida and New England. Arizona, New Mexico, Florida and Maine all set statewide records for the hottest month on record. Phoenix, Arizona set the record for the hottest mean monthly temperature on record for any place in the United States. The average Phoenix July temperature was 102.2 degrees.

The central and northern Plains were just a touch cooler than average, but it certainly wasn't among the chilliest Julys on record there.  

I know we had an incredibly wet July here in New England, but for the nation as a whole, July was pretty average for rainfall.  A sodden month in the Northeast and parts of the Midwest were offset by arid conditions in much of the West and parts of the Northern Plains. 

Here in Vermont - as you know - we had an, um, exciting month of July in the weather department. We had our third hottest July on record for the state as a whole, and the second wettest July on record.  I think we didn't make it into the #1 position as wettest month because parts of the Champlain Valley and extreme southeast Vermont were only sort of wet, not record soggy. 

ODD STORMINESS 

The spring severe thunderstorm, tornado and hail season in the United States tends to wane a fair amount by the time we get into later June and July. Not this year. 

The Washington Post's Capital Weather Gang recently reported that the United States in July, 2023 had the most severe weather reports of any July on record.

That's just in recent years, though, as this severe weather data only goes back to 2004.  Still, the 6,637 July reports of thunderstorm wind damage, gusts over 58 mph, tornadoes and large hail far exceed the previous record of 5,642 in 2016, WaPo reports.

Hail reports were especially striking in July, 2023. Big hail is a creature of the spring, when colder air in the atmosphere is better able to manufacture large hailstones.  However, July had a record number of reports of nasty hail.   There were no fewer than 188 reports of hail at least the size of hens eggs.

I don't know exactly how significant this new record is. It's possible more members of the public are reporting instances of severe weather. But it's obvious July was stormier than it normally is.  

The severe weather, as we know, has continued into August.  As reported earlier, more than 1,000 reports of severe storm wind damage came in just on Monday. Through Thursday, August already had more than 2,500 United States severe weather reports, and the month isn't even half over.  

It's been a stormy United States year anyway. 

Three new billion dollar weather disasters, two in June, one in April,  have been confirmed in the United States, bringing the nation's total to 15 for the year. That's a record for just this far into the year, and these records ARE adjusted for inflation. 

The flood calamity that hit Vermont and surrounding states is still being assessed, so that has not yet been included in the billion dollar disaster list. It probably will be, though. 

New data due within the next few days will confirm that July was globally the hottest month on record.  I'll have an update when these new figures become available.