SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) – July in Salt Lake City was one for the record books, quite literally.
The month’s heat not only far exceeded normal ranges for what is already a hot month in the Capitol City, but also broke or tied several records. The record most are familiar with was hit on July 17th when we reached 107°, tying the previous high for the city — but there were others.
In July, Salt Lake City registered 18 separate 100°+ days, breaking the old record of 15 set back in 1960. Oddly enough, 1960 is also when we had a 107° high, and while 18 days over the century mark sounds very high, it’s even more impressive when you consider that the average amount of triple digit days in July is three. That’s right, we spent more than two weeks of July over what was normal for 100°+ weather.
But wait, there’s more!
In an average July, we are likely to spend ten days with temperatures over the 95° mark. Care to take a guess as to how many days we broke that mark this year? Remember that you already know that 18 of those days were in triple digits. Unbelievably, we spent a total of 29 days over 95°, leaving only two days in the month under that sweltering spot. The old record was not long ago, as 2021 saw SLC hit 95° or above 27 times. That is some pretty hefty heat in July back-to-back.
And, yes, there is more.
In July, we set a record for the highest average high with a blistering 99.7° (normal being 94°) and for the average minimum with 74.9° (normal being 63.2°). In fact, during the entire month there was only one day that recorded below 70° — July 11th, 68°. And with all that going on, it was clear that we’d break the record for the highest overall average temperature for the month of July, which we did with 87.3°. A normal average temperature for Salt Lake City in July is 81.1°.
It’s not hard to guess that we didn’t see much in the way of rain in July. We topped out the month with only 0.12″, with almost all of that coming on July 15th (our lowest high temperature day with 91°). And while it’s not a record low, the average rainfall in July was just under a half an inch. It’s a good thing that August started off so well with 0.41″ falling on the first day!
And speaking of August, it’s very likely that we’ll see another heat record fall before too long. On July 31st, we hit our 21st day of 100°+ days for the year. This ties a record that has been hit three different times, most recently last year. It’s pretty safe to say that we’ll be breaking that before too long.
So, while we will always remember the heat of July 2022, there will be no missing the AC bills that likely came with it. Now, we’ll just have to see what August has in store for us.
