Hot July; Cool, Dry August

    While temperatures topped 90 degrees on four days in July, August was “considerably on the cool side,” Richard G. Hendrickson reported from Bridgehampton. “In all my years of keeping weather records, this has been one of the coolest Augusts. There was only one day, on the 2nd, when it reached 91 degrees, the highest for the month. In fact, it was only 80 or higher on 14 days. A cool, cool August.”

    Mr. Hendrickson, who turned 101 on Monday, has been a United States Cooperative weather observer since he was a teenager.

    The temperature actually dropped to a chilly 47 degrees on Aug. 25, according to his records, but that was the only time it was lower than 50.

    August brought measurable rain on seven days, but the heaviest daily amount was only .61 inches, and the total for the month was just 1.25 inches. “This has been the driest August since 2005,” Mr. Hendrickson wrote. “Late melons, corn, tomatoes, and winter pumpkins need rains now, as well as the late potatoes.” They got plenty on Monday and Tuesday.

    Looking back to July, the highs for the first 13 days were only in the 70s and 80s, but on the 15th, it hit 91 and stayed there for four days. The highest temperature for the month was 95 on the 18th. Mr. Hendrickson’s lowest night readings in July were 59 on July 26 and 30.

    There was measurable rain on nine days in July, on the 1st, the 12th to the 14th, and the 22nd to the 26th, but always in scant amounts, with the heaviest being only .39 of an inch on July 13. The total for the month was 1.44 inches, “a long way from the at least three-inch long-term average.”

    In July, Mr. Hendrickson recorded wind from the southwest on 22 days and 22 days of clouds, “not a nice number for eastern Long Island summer folks or nature.