Ithaca Climate Summary for August 2005

Temperature

• With an average temperature of 71.5 degrees, the month averaged 4.2 degrees warmer than normal.
• This tied 1955 as the warmest August on record (compared to data back to 1879 adjusted for station moves).
• The summer (June-August) average temperature of 71.3 degrees was the warmest summer on record (compared to monthly data back to 1879 adjusted for station moves).
• There were 40 days during the months of June through August with a temperature of 85 degrees or higher. This was the most since the record of 49 such days in 1955.
• The temperature reached 90 degrees on four days this month, bringing the total for the summer to 13 days. Normal for the entire summer is 4 days and this summer's total is the most since 15 days in 2002.
• The warmest temperature of the month was 94 degrees on the 4th.
• The coldest temperature of the month was 45 degrees on the 25th.

Precipitation

• The August precipitation total was 2.80 inches, which was 83% of normal.
• This total wasn't representative of the dry conditions that persisted for most of the month, however, as 2.33 inches fell on the last two days of the month.
• For the period July 1 through August 29, only 1.82 inches of rain was reported, making it the driest such period on record.
• There were only 5 days with precipitation of more than 0.10 inch during the months of July and August. This set a record for the fewest such number of days (previous record was 6 days in 1939)..
• Year-to-date precipitation was 24.47 inches at month's end, which was 0.42 inches more than normal.