If it felt like August was a long hot month, you are right. To put it in a nutshell August was hot and dry. Geary County Extension Agent Chuck Otte said temperatures were above normal. Precipitation was well below normal.
The average daily high for August was 91.3, 3.3 degrees above normal. The average overnight low was 70.0, 3.7 degrees above normal. This gave us a monthly mean temperature of 80.7, 3.5 degrees above normal. While July is usually the warmest month of the year, August stole that title this year with the monthly mean temperature that was 1.5 degrees warmer than July! We reached 100 degrees on two separate occasions, in August, on the 24th and 26th. The lowest temperature for the month was 60 degrees on the morning of August 3rd.
There were three temperature records set during the month and one tied. All were record high overnight lows. The low of 77 on the 12th tied the record for that date set in 2006 and reached again in 2010. The lows on the 24th, 25th and 26th all broke the record high lows for those dates. The low of 76 on the 24th broke the record of 75 set in 2006 and again in 2014. The low of 78 on the 25th broke the old record of 76 set in 1955 and the low on the 26th of 79 broke the old record of 78 set in 1954.
While it was a hot month it wasn’t a record hot month. The hottest August on record was in 2000 when we had a monthly mean temperature of 85.0 degrees. It has been over a decade since we experienced an August monthly mean temperature above 80. August 2010 we matched this year’s monthly mean temperature of 80.7 The coldest August was in 1981 with a monthly mean temperature of 71.5
Rainfall events in August were few, far between and scattered. Average August rainfall is 4.55 inches. Milford Lake received 1.49 inches and Junction City 1.07 inches. Crops, pastures, lawns and gardens all suffered from the heat and lack of rain. Normal year to date precipitation through August is 25.65 inches. Milford Lake has received 18.39 inches this year and Junction City 23.27 inches. The driest August on record was 1971 when no rainfall was recorded. The wettest August on record was in 2013 when 10.33 inches of rain was recorded. August 16, 2013 4.30 inches of rain fell at Milford Lake in just a few hours in the afternoon causing localized flooding just northwest of Junction City.
September starts to flirt with fall type weather and the days shorten significantly as we approach the autumnal equinox (September 22nd at 2:11 p.m.) Shorter days bring with it cooler temperatures to most everyone’s delight. Rainfall starts to drop off noticeably as well as we start to head into the drier winter season. Average daily highs in September start the month around 85 and by the month’s end are down to 75. Overnight lows drop from 64 on the 1st to 51 on the 30th. Average September precipitation is 2.85 inches. While there have been a few records of first freezes in September (3 times in the past 70 years) we normally expect our first frosts to occur in mid to late October.