July 2020 Climate Review: Temperatures finished above normal by around 2 to 3 degrees. Paducah observed 26 days reaching 90 degrees, including 19 straight from July 3-21. This was the longest streak of consecutive days in the 90s since we had 29 straight back in 2012. Oppressive humidity was a common occurrence, with dewpoints reaching 75 or higher for 17 straight days in Paducah from July 15-31. This resulted in heat index readings frequently reaching around 100 (17 days in Paducah) and on a few occasions around 105. Paducah’s coldest high temperature in July was 86 degrees. There have only been two other July’s on record where high temperatures reached or exceeded 86 every single day of the month (1993 and 1942).
Most of the region finished wetter than normal with rainfall amounts ranging from 4 to 8 inches. Some localized higher totals of up to 10 to 11 inches were observed as well, mainly in western Kentucky. The highest observing site in our area was a CoCoRaHS station near Cadiz, KY that received 11.72” for the month. There were some exceptions, with drier than normal conditions occurring in portions of southeast Illinois, particularly from portions of Jefferson County east into White County and also small portions of southeast Missouri including the Cape Girardeau Airport. As is typically the case during the warm season, there can be drastic differences within the same county. McCracken County Kentucky was one such case, where the Paducah airport on the west side of town received only 4.22”. Meanwhile a CoCoRaHS station in Reidland (southeast part of county) picked up 9.96” and another observer reported 9.27” near downtown Paducah.
The graphic below is an interpolated rainfall map using actual observations. Please note that there are likely discrepancies in between observations, since the values are estimated based on nearest reports.
| July 2020 Review: Precipitation and Temperature Maps (Click on image to enlarge) |
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| Climate Maps are from the Northeast Regional Climate Center |
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