BTV July 2020 Recap

This post is the second in a two-part series recapping July 2020 weather in New England. In this one, I focus on weather data at Burlington International Airport (BTV) in South Burlington, Vermont. I covered the weather in Connecticut in a post that I published yesterday.

Like in Connecticut, it was impressively hot in Vermont this past July. The average temperature for the month was 76.8 °F, when the historical average for July based on data dating back to 1940 is 70.6 °F, giving us a departure from normal of 6.2 °F. This was the warmest July on record at BTV, with 2018 being the second warmest and 2019 being the third.

July 2020 temperature graph for BTV (NOAA Regional Climate Centers)

One thing that I find particularly striking about the above temperature graph for the month is that there was not a single day when the low temperature was not below the normal temperature range (the brown zone in the graph). On the flip side, on all but one day (July 14th), the high temperature was greater than or equal to the high in the normal temperature range. Simply by looking at the graph, you can tell that it was a hot month.

Looking at the specifics, there were 9 days when the high temperature was greater than or equal to 90 °F and only one day that the temperature failed to crack above 80 °F. BTV saw 2 heatwaves during July 2020, and the high temperature for the month, 95 °F, occurred on consecutive days: the 9th and the 10th. Also of note, the low temperature on July 10th was a scorching 75 °F. For many houses in VT that do not have air conditioning, that makes indoor conditions almost unbearable. The lowest temperature reached for the entire month was 60 °F, which occurred on the 6th. It's very rare that the temperature does not drop below 60 °F in a given month at BTV.

Like in Connecticut, it was a dry month in Vermont, though to not quite as great an extent. This July, BTV saw 2.45 inches of precipitation, when an average July sees 4.16 inches.

BTV July 2020 accumulated precipitation (NOAA Regional Climate Centers)

The above accumulated precipitation graph show that there were many days that it rained during July 2020, though each of these days contributed to the total monthly precipitation only incrementally. In fact, at least a trace of new precipitation was recorded at BTV on 20 out of 31 days during the month, but many of these days saw only a trace or 0.01 inches of precipitation. The largest single-day rainfall total occurred on the 27th, when 0.68 inches of rain fell.

Unlike in Northern Connecticut, total precipitation in VT has been fairly average this year, though it lags slightly behind normal values as of today.

BTV 2020 accumulated precipitation (NOAA Regional Climate Centers)

During a typical year, BTV would have seen 21.66 inches of precipitation by now; this year, we've seen 19.80 inches. Unfortunately, though, Burlington is moderately dry right now according to the United States Drought Monitor, while Central and Southern Vermont are in a moderate drought.

U.S. Drought Monitor for Vermont (National Drought Mitigation Center)

Hopefully, we'll see some rain for our lawns that need it. Overall, it was a warm and dry month. We'll see if that continues in August.