BDL July 2020 Recap

In all the craziness of the past week, I never got the opportunity to recap the weather for CT and VT during the month of July. This post will be the first in a two-part series where I discuss weather for Bradley International Airport (BDL) in CT and Burlington International Airport (BTV) in VT during July 2020, and I'll start with BDL.

Beginning with temperatures, as has been the case for the year as a whole, July was a warm month at BDL. The average monthly temperature was 78.0 °F, when the normal July average based on climate records dating back to 1949 is 73.6 °F, giving us a temperature departure of 4.4 °F from normal.

BDL July 2020 temperature graph (NOAA Regional Climate Centers)

As we can see in the above temperature graph, low temperatures during the month mostly remained in the normal temperature range (the brown-shaded zone), while high temperatures often exceeded the normal range, particularly at the end of the month. The high temperature was greater than or equal to 90 °F on all but 11 days this July, and from July 18 to July 31, only one day (the 24th) had a high temperature that was less than 90 °F. We saw three heatwaves during the month, but we failed to reach the 100 degree mark, with the July 2020 maximum temperature being 99 °F, which we hit on the 19th. 

At the other end of the spectrum, let's talk overnight low temperatures. I think a good threshold for determining what is an uncomfortably warm overnight low is 70 °F. At this temperature, it is quite difficult to sleep without air conditioning. The temperature failed to drop below 70 °F on 10 days this month, and on July 20, it only fell to 73 °F. Temperatures were slightly more comfortable for sleeping at the beginning of the month; on July 2, the overnight low was 58 °F. 

Now we'll look at precipitation for July 2020. As has been the case this summer, it was a dry month. The average July precipitation for BDL is 4.18 inches, but in 2020 we only saw 0.98 inches, with 0.53 in. of that total coming on July 23.

BDL July 2020 accumulated precipitation (NOAA Regional Climate Centers)

The brown line in the above graph (click on the image for better picture quality) shows the average accumulated precipitation, and the green line is what we saw this year. Clearly, July was dry, with only incremental increases in precipitation throughout the month and one larger rainstorm on the 23rd.

The following graph is the same one as above, except for 2020 to date. Note that this graph includes the rainfall from Isaias.

BDL 2020 accumulated precipitation (NOAA Regional Climate Centers)

In the above graph we can see just how dry it has been this summer - BDL has seen 18.90 inches of precipitation this year, when average to date is 27.80 inches. This year's dearth of rain has contributed to the drought that parts of CT are experiencing, and Isaias did not do much to mitigate it.

CT drought monitor (National Drought Mitigation Center)

The above drought monitor, valid for August 4 (the day Isaias struck CT), shows that the northern part of the state is in a moderate drought, while much of the rest of CT is abnormally dry. Hopefully some rain will cause the drought to abate soon.

Overall, July 2020 was a warm and dry month at BDL, and that looks to continue during August.