Good morning bloggers,
We had a very interesting weather day to start the week on Monday. Thunderstorms developed south of KC and dumped 2 - 3 inches of rain just south of Olathe, KS crossing the state line to Peculiar, MO. The National Weather Service issued a Flash Flood Warning.
Then, the thunderstorms formed a rain-cooled air mass dropping the temperatures into the 70s after it was 91°. This temperature drop came without any rain, and the rain-cooled-air ended the chance of rain in most spots as it stablized the air, made it too cool to produce new thunderstorms. Thunderstorms did form north of KC, but they quickly fell apart by sunset.
Estimated Rainfall Amounts From Monday:
Rainfall amounts ranged from not even one drop to 4". That was our last chance of rain for a few days with our next chance possibly on Friday.
As August comes to a close, let's take an historical look at this month.
Meteorologist Hugh Crowther lives in the Kansas City metro area and has been providing some great climatological information for years. Here is what he has put together for Kansas City weather in August:
August is slightly cooler than July, and about the same as far as rainfall. The average temperature for the month is 76.7 degrees. The average daily high is 87.1 degrees and the average daily low is 66.3 degrees. The average rainfall is 4.24 inches. The average daily high slowly drops from 89 degrees at the start of the month to 85 degrees by the end of the August, while the average daily low drops from 68 degrees to 63 degrees.
There are twelve days in August with a high of 90 degrees or above, on the average, including five days with a high of 95 degrees or above, and one day with a high of 100 degrees or above.
The amount of daylight begins to noticeably drop off in August, from fourteen hours and eleven minutes at the start of the month (sunrise of 6:18 AM and sunset of 8:29 PM) to thirteen hours and four minutes by the end of the month (sunrise of 6:46 AM and sunset of 7:50 PM).
August 1936 was the hottest of record, with a mean temperature of 87.0 degrees. The average daily high was 100 degrees and the average daily low was 74 degrees. It was the culmination of an incredibly hot and dry summer which featured a total of 53 days of 100 degree heat, and just 1.12 inch of rain between June and August. There was less than nine inches of rain the first eight months of the year. There were nineteen straight days with highs 100 degrees or above between August 9 and August 27, including eleven days with a high of 105 degrees or above, and four days with a high of 110 degrees or above.
The high of 113 degrees on August 14 established an all-time record for Kansas City, which stands to this date. There were eleven nights with a low of 80 degrees or above during the streak of 100 degree days, including three nights with a low of 86 degrees. Seventeen daily record highs were established that month, fourteen of which still stand today, and there were eleven days with record warm lows, ten of which still stand today.
August 1947 was the second warmest of record with a mean temperature of 86.3 degrees. The average daily high was 96.9 degrees and the average daily low was 75.6 degrees. There were twenty-six days that month with a high of 95 degrees or above, including eleven days of triple digit heat. Overnight lows varied between 70 degrees and 81 degrees. Hot weather continued into September, with another fourteen days with highs 90 degrees or above, including a high of 109 degrees, and October was 11.6 degrees above normal, with two more days of 90 degree heat (please make it stop!).
August 1934 was only the seventh hottest August of record, but featured extremely hot weather the first half of the month. Fourteen of the first eighteen days were 100 degrees or above. Highs were above 105 degrees for eight straight days, between August 4 and August 11, including a high of 110 degrees on August 9 and a high of 111 degrees on August 10. Record highs were established each of those days, and all eight remain records to this date (although the high of 110 degrees on August 9 was tied in 1936).
The summer of 1934 was the second hottest summer of record overall, with a mean temperature of 84.9 degrees for the three summer months. There were 80 days with a high of 90 degrees or above that year, including 47 days with a high of 100 degrees or above, and a record 26 days with a high of 105 degrees or above.
August 1915 was the coolest of record, with a mean temperature of 70.1 degrees. There was not a single day that month with a high of 90 degrees, the warmest reading was 88 degrees on August 16. There were four days, however, with highs only in the 60s, including a highs of 64 degrees on August 3 and August 30. On August 30, the morning low was 47 degrees. It was the coolest summer of record for Kansas City. There were just four days that entire year with a high of 90 degrees or above, three in May and one in July.
August 2017 was the wettest of record with 10.19 inches of rain. Thunderstorms the night of August 21 produced 4.08 inches of rain at the International Airport prior to Midnight, and another 2.06 inches after Midnight. As much as 8 to 10 inches of rain deluged southwestern portions of the Kansas City area in a six hour period, and record flooding along Indian Creek in southern Kansas inundated shops along 103 Street rd between State Line and Wornall Road.
In August 1969, showers and thunderstorms deluged Kansas City with 7.45 inches of rain, including 5.51 inches between 2 AM and 6 AM. It was the second highest daily rainfall of record for Kansas City, second only to 8.82 inches on September 12, 1977, the day of the “Plaza Flood”. It was just fine with me it rained that entire day, I was inside with friends down the street playing “Risk”.
In 1906, pre-dawn thunderstorms deluged Kansas City with 5.93 inches of rain. The rain fell at a rate of half an inch in five minutes at times. Turkey Creek flooded, and caskets from a nearby cemetery went floating downstream (you just never can seem to get rid of some bad relatives).
AUGUST AVERAGES
- 22 days with no rain
- 3 days with very light rain (.01 to .09 inch)
- 2 days with light rain (.10 to .24 inch)
- 1 day with moderate rain (.25 to .49 inch)
- 2 days with moderate to heavy rain (.50 to .99 inch)
- 1 day with heavy rain (more than one inch)
- 2 days with a high of 100 degrees or above
- 4 days with highs in the upper 90s
- 7 days with highs in the lower 90s
- 7 days with highs in the upper 80s
- 6 days with highs in the lower 80s
- 3 days with highs in the upper 70s
- 2 days with highs in the lower 70s
- One night with a low of 80 degrees or above
- 3 nights with lows in the upper 70s
- 8 nights with lows in the lower 70s
- 10 nights with lows in the upper 60s
- 6 nights with lows in the lower 60s
- 2 nights with lows in the upper 50s
- 1 night with a low in the lower 50s
Thank you to Hugh Crowther for this interesting information and data on this month of August! We will be looking for our first fall cold front on the new data. For now, it will be a warm to hot ending of August and beginning of September.
The Tropics:
The Atlantic Basin is about to go the entire month of August without a named storm for the first time since 1997. This was predicted by Weather 20/20 to be a quieter hurricane season and this forecast continues to be on target. Peak hurricane season is now just a dozen days away.
By Labor Day weekend most of the models have our first named storm since Colin almost two months ago. Danielle is the next name on the list in the Atlantic, and Javier is the next name on the list in the eastern Pacific.
The Pacific Ocean started out active. Even out there it has calmed down a bit. We will track these systems for you in the next week.
Kansas City Weather:
- Today: Mostly sunny with nearly 100% sunshine this afternoon. It will be a bit cooler with a light north breeze. High: 85°
- Tonight: Cooler, clear, and nice. The humidity is down with a low of 60°
- Wednesday: Sunny, hot, and comfortable. High: 87°
Thank you for sharing in this weather experience and spending a few minutes of your day reading the weather blog.
Have a great day!
Gary
