Monday, July 20, 2009
Weather columnist Kevin Myatt: There's little likelihood of July heat wave in Roanoke
Kevin Myatt is The Roanoke Times' weather columnist.
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July has a chance to make a run at the record books, but not for the kind of weather we typically associate with this month.
Through Sunday, Roanoke's average temperature for the first 19 days of July was 72.9 degrees.
If that were the average for the entire 31 days, it would be the third coolest July in Roanoke dating all the way back to 1912.
Roanoke's coolest July averaged 71.7 degrees in 1947, according to records posted by the National Weather Service on its Blacksburg Web site.
Of course, July isn't over yet, so there are still nearly two weeks for a few hot days to skew the average upward.
But this week won't move the average up much, and it might even shave a little more off it.
Cool, dry air from Canada will slowly give way to warm, moist subtropical air during the week. That means that while the nights will get more muggy with lows rising from about 60 early in the week to the mid- and upper 60s later on, daytime highs will continue to struggle with increasing clouds and showers.
It's not likely that any day this week will achieve Roanoke's statistically normal high of 88 for this time of year, typically the peak of the annual heating cycle. Some days, especially early in the week, might not even make 80.
There's no sign of a major pattern shift that would bring a heat wave to Roanoke before July ends.
