Crawford County was very hot and awfully wet in July as tempertures and precipitation pushed toward record numbers.
July was the second hottest July locally in a decade. It was also the rainiest, according to the National Weather Service.
The average daytime high temperature here last month was 91.3 degrees, up from almost 82.4 degrees in 2021. In the last 10 years, only 2012 had a higher reported average high — 96.3 degrees.
The hottest temperature of the month was 103, reported July 6. The mercury also hit triple digits on the 20th, when it was 100. Highs were in the 90s 17 times during the month. The remaining high temperatures were in the 80s.
The July 2021 high temperature was 92, reported July 6. Most highs last July were in the 80s.
The hottest July on record occurred in 1954, when the average high was more than 97.7 degrees. That year, the mercury boiled up to the 90s on 15 days and 100 or hotter another 15 days.
The hottest temperature ever reported in Crawford County history — 114 degrees — was set on the 14th that year.
The average July overnight low was slightly more than 67.7, up from almost 65.5 last year. The coolest temperature of the month was 59, set July 29. This compares to the 2021 low of 52, reported July 2.
Most lows this month were in the 60s, although there were 12 nights with lows in the 70s. Most lows were in the 60s last year, too, but there were two nights of temperatures in the 50s and one — July 13 — where it never cooled below 81.
A total of 10.44 inches of rainfall was officially reported in the county during the month. The heaviest storm dropped 2.14 inches here July 26. Another 1.12 inches fell over the next two days. Totals of more than 1 inch were also reported July 1, 7, 17 and 24.
More than 6.16 inches of rain was reported in the county in 2021. The heaviest rainfall dropped 1.56 inches July 10. Another 1.49 inches was reported July 16 and 17.
The wettest July on record, however, is still 1958. More than 12.56 inches fell. The driest July was four years earlier when only .61 inch was reported.
June was not the hottest Crawford County residents ever sweated through, but it came close.
Most highs were in the 80s, but thanks to a half-dozen days of high temperatures in the triple digits — including four in a row from June 14 to 17 — and seven days of high in the 90s, the average daytime high during the month here was 90.3 degrees.
The “coolest” day of the month was June 11, when trace amounts of rain kept the temperature down to 74. The overnight low on that date was 58.
The average overnight low — at 72.1 — wasn’t all that low at all. The lowest temperature of the month was 51 on the 3rd. On the other hand, the mercury never dipped below 77 on June 16 or 76 the following night.
Most lows were in the 50s or 60s. There were five nights of temperatures in the 70s.
June 1933 remains the hottest June overall. The average high that month was 93.7 degrees, while the overnight low was 65. Temperatures hit the triple digits six times during the month’s final 10 days.
The hottest temperature was 103, reported on June 30. This fell short of the record of 108, reported June 20, 1953, and June 26, 1954.
The coldest June temperature ever in the county is 40, reported June 2, 1956.
the county stayed off the U.S. Drought Monitor’s watch list for most of June thanks to more than 3.59 inches of rainfall. By the end, however, all but Crawford’s southwest corner was rated as “abnormally dry.”
June’s heaviest precipitation dropped 1.65 inches of rain here on the 27th. Otherwise, the second half of the month was mostly dry.
The rainiest local June occurred in 2013, when 10.34 inches of rain soaked the county. That bested the old record of more than 10.22 inches that fell in June 1944. Measurable rainfall was reported on 16 of the month’s 30 days, with the heaviest precipitation dumping 2.89 inches on the county June 1.
The driest June was a year earlier. Thanks to the 2012 drought, only .55 inch of rain fell here, besting a record set in the Dust Bowl days of the 1930s.
The preliminary statewide average July temperature was 75.5 degrees, one-tenth of a degree above the 1991–2020 average and tied for the 57th warmest on record going back to 1895, according to State Climatologist Trent Ford. The preliminary statewide average total July precipitation was 5.69 inches, 1.63 inches above the 1991–2020 average and the 14th wettest on record statewide.
“For the second consecutive year, much of Illinois experienced a cooler or near normal July following a very warm June,” Ford said. “However, if you were in eastern or southern Illinois, your July was on the warm side… Most of the state experienced significant heat waves in the first and third weeks of the month.”
Humidity was a bit lower than in the past few years in northern Illinois, but most of southern Illinois experienced yet another very humid July.
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