ST. LOUIS — It's not exactly an amazing prediction that it will be drier than it was in July. It finished as one of our wettest months of July on record. But it is probably nice to note that we are going to get a little break from the constant rain (and hard rain) that we saw during parts of the month.
Wednesday morning was far from a record, but it was still in the mid-60s. It was among the top 50 coolest mornings on record. Nothing special, but it felt nice to wake up with low humidity and lower temperatures.
This is not exactly indicative of the trends in August, however. It's been pretty warm to start, and despite a nice break the next few days, that will be the trend to end the month as well.
We've only gotten about a quarter-inch of rain the first week of August so far. That trend will probably continue until about Monday of next week. So things will get a little dry with the higher sun angle still in place. but chances of rain are slated to return for a few days next week. This should get us closer to normal, but I am not particularly certain it stay that way the rest of the month.
The long-term trend from the Climate Prediction Center tells us that areas to our immediate southwest are trending for below-average precipitation for the last two weeks of the month. While there is plenty of uncertainty on where this may set up, it's important to note why this may be the pattern to finish the month.
To start that period that the CPC is tracking, a pretty strong center of high pressure looks to be settled over that region. Dry, warm and sinking air really keeps any storm development from being too significant. We are somewhat on the edge of this, it seems, but I believe we are close enough to still be pretty warm and dry.
Our average highs at the end of the month range from 88-86 degrees, and judging by this, we may have no problem reaching the mid-90s for a few more days. Once again, it's August, so this is not all that surprising. But for planning purposes, we are looking at a wetter week next week and then, perhaps, a relatively dry stretch for the last two weeks of the month as things warm up. We will keep you posted as the forecast changes.
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