By Chuck Otte
County Extension Agent, Retired
July was slightly warmer and slightly drier than the long term averages in Junction City. Amazingly, we never broke 100 degrees in what is typically the hottest month of the year (but there’s a lot of summer to go yet!)The average daily high for July was 89.7 which is the long term average daily high for the month! We rarely hit the average temperature! The average overnight low was 70.6 which is 2.1 degrees above normal. This gave us a monthly mean temperature of 80.1 which is 1.0 degree above average.
The highest temperature for the month was 96 which was reached on July 17th, 28th and 29th. The lowest temperature was 64 degrees which was reached on the morning of July 14th. There were no temperature records set or tied during July. The hottest July on record was in 1954 when we had a monthly mean temperature of 87 degrees. In July of 1954 the temperature reached 100 or above on 19 days including three consecutive days with an afternoon high of 114 degrees, the highest temperature in Junction City weather records!
The coldest July is a tie between 1950 and 1967 with a nice autumn like monthly mean temperature of 73.8 degrees.The first half of July experienced slightly below average rainfall while the second half of the month saw above average rainfall including one ten day stretch where measurable precipitation was record on nine of those ten days! Long term average July rainfall for Junction City is 4.14 inches and the official July tally for 2025 was 3.33 inches. Year to date we are running just a little above average. Normal precipitation total through the end of July is 21.10 inches and so far in 2025 we have received 21.68 inches.
Everyone always assumes that the wettest July was in either 1951 or 1993 because those were flood years. But in reality those two years come in at 3rd and 5th for our wettest July’s. Wettest was actually 1950 with 13.65 inches, followed by 1948 - 12.99 inches, 1951 - 12.43 inches, 1992 - 12.32 inches, and 1993 - 11.54 inches. The driest July was in 1983 when the dust in the rain gauge was barely bothered by the 0.04 of an inch we received.
As the minutes of daylight shorten in August, the temperatures slowly start to decline, but the emphasis is on slowly! Average daily highs decrease from 89 on the 1st to 87 on the 31st. Overnight lows begin the month around 68 and by the end of the month are down to 65. Don’t kid yourself though, August can be brutally hot, just like July, but the advantage is that you’re just closer to autumn! Average rainfall increases slightly during August with long term average rainfall for the month coming in at 4.55 inches.