Seasonable first half.. hot and dry second half..July 2007 was marked by a distinct split personality.. the first half of the month featured generally normal temperatures and rainfall with no major extremes. The second half of the month however was marked by very hot and humid conditions and a lack of rainfall, with 2 heat waves to end the month that saw temperatures in the mid 30s and humidex values in the mid 40s. From the 17th to the 31st, the mean temperature at my location was 24C, some 4 degrees above normal. This compares to the first two weeks of the month which averaged a normal 20C. The result was a month that finished about two degrees above normal, but was considerably biased by the warm second half. The average high temperature in the last two weeks was a sizzling 31.3c, thanks to 8 days of 30+ temperatures, including a 35c reading on July 25th that was accompanied by Winnipeg's hottest humidex on record.. 48C thanks to a dewpoint of 26C at the time. The same day saw Carman, MB set a national humidex record of 53C thanks to an incredible 30c dewpoint.
Rainfall for the month was generally near normal with about 70 mm at my location (60 mm at Winnipeg airport). However, the rain was mainly concentrated in the first half of the month, with about 50 mm in the first two weeks spread over 5 or 6 rain events. The second half of the month saw only one rain event, when about 20-25 mm of rain fell during thunderstorms on the 25th that brought an end to the month's first heat wave. The hot dry weather has started to produce heat stress in area crops with depleting soil moisture, a considerable change from the wet conditions experienced during May and June.
All in all.. a sizzling end to a warm July.
I can only imagine the temperatures and the crop damage we'd have seen if it hadn't been for the heavy May and June rains. Perhaps the Humidex records wouldn't have been broken, but several daily high temperature records might have been.
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