Monthly Climatological Summary
Norman 3SE, Cleveland Co., OK (Lat 35^10'57"N, Lon 97^25'27"W, elev 1130)
July 2003
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Temperature Precipitation Snow AM PM
Max Min Water Snow Depth Wx Wx
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01 94.3 71.4 .00 0.0 0 SCT SCT
02 95.5 71.2 .00 0.0 0 SKC SCT
03 96.8 71.8 .00 0.0 0 SKC SKC
04 94.1 72.0 .00 0.0 0 SKC FEW
05 92.7 71.8 .00 0.0 0 SKC SCT
06 94.3 70.3 .00 0.0 0 BKN BKN
07 93.7 73.0 .00 0.0 0 BKN BKN
08 93.7 72.1 .00 0.0 0 BKN BKN
09 95.4 72.0 T 0.0 0 SCT BKN
10 94.8 72.9 .00 0.0 0 SKC FEW
11 96.8 68.5 .00 0.0 0 SKC SKC
12 98.6 74.8 T 0.0 0 SCT SHRA
13 97.5 75.2 .00 0.0 0 BKN SKC
14 100.9 74.7 .00 0.0 0 SCT SKC
15 97.0 75.0 .00 0.0 0 SKC FEW
16 95.2 70.9 .00 0.0 0 SCT SKC
17 97.2 73.0 .00 0.0 0 SCT FEW
18 101.8 74.3 .00 0.0 0 SCT SCT
19 104.0 72.5 .00 0.0 0 SCT SCT
20 103.8 75.9 .00 0.0 0 SCT SCT
21 102.6 81.3 T 0.0 0 OVC -RA
22 93.4 73.9 .00 0.0 0 BKN SCT
23 90.1 66.9 .00 0.0 0 SKC SCT
24 93.7 63.3 .00 0.0 0 SKC SKC
25 97.5 72.9 .00 0.0 0 SKC SCT
26 100.2 75.6 .00 0.0 0 SKC SCT
27 99.0 73.4 .00 0.0 0 SKC SCT
28 102.7 73.4 .00 0.0 0 SCT SCT
29 100.9 71.4 .00 0.0 0 BKN SCT
30 88.3 66.0 .68 0.0 0 +TSRA SCT
31 95.0 68.2 .00 0.0 0 SKC SCT
KEY TO AM/PM WX: SKC - sky clear, FEW - few clouds, SCT -
partly cloudy, BKN - mostly cloudy, OVC - overcast, RA -
rain, SHRA - rain shower, TSRA - thunderstorm with rain.
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Means and Totals for July 2003
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Average Maximum Temperature: 96.8
Average Minimum Temperature: 72.2
Mean Temperature: 84.5
Maximum Temperature: 104.0 (7-19-03)
Minimum Temperature: 63.3 (7-24-03)
Days with max temperature 90.0F+: 30 Year: 42
Days with max temperature <32.0F: 0 Year: 4
Days with min temperature <32.0F: 0 Year: 51
Days with min temperature <0.0F: 0 Year: 0
Precipitation: .68 Year: 13.36
Greatest one-day precipitation: .68 (7-30-03)
Snowfall: 0.0 Year: 5.0
Greatest one-day snowfall: 0.0
Maximum snow depth at midnight: 0
Days with measureable pcpn: 1 Year: 50
Days with pcpn 1.00"+: 0 Year: 2
Days with measureable snowfall: 0 Year: 4
Days with snowfall 1"+: 0 Year: 2
Days with glaze ice: 0 Year: 5
Days with damaging wind: 1 Year: 4
Days with hail: 0 Year: 4
Days with thunderstorms: 1 Year: 35
Days with fog: 0 Year: 10
NOTICE: All temperatures are in degrees Fahrenheit and all precipitation values in inches. Snowfall totals denoted by an asterisk indicate hail.
Summary....I was ready to write about how our weather in July 2003 was more typical of Bakersfield CA than it was of Norman OK. How going into the last week of the month, most of the month's rain had come in a 30-second, 3 city block wide shower on the 12th - all while the sun was still shining. How the vegetation had turned so brown, embers from a burning warehouse ignited a small grass fire 1/2 mile west of my apartment on the 26th. That was all before our convective double whammy during the early morning hours of the 30th. We were just 47 hours away from going the entire month without measureable rain when a thunderstorm swept through Norman to spoil those chances. This storm brought a brief period of heavy rain and some exceptionally intense lightning between 1-2am, but the main show was yet to come. Norman got hit with another storm at 6am that blasted the city with intense winds for 15-20 minutes. Large tree limbs were snapped and power outages occurred throughout the entire city, and small airplanes were overturned at the airport (where winds gusted to 79 mph). The core of the most intense wind appeared to have skimmed the northwest part of the city, where many fences were blown down, and continued just north of the city, where road signs were blown down, 18-wheelers were overturned, and power poles were tipped over - including a 50-foot alumnimum power pole which was bent in half. The northwest part of Norman also received more than 2 inches of rain during this storm - so for that area July's rainfall was actually not that far from average, despite the fact 30 out of 31 days out of the month had no measureable rain.
For a while it looked as if Turlock CA might get more rain than Norman in July 2003. Subtropical moisture often found its way into California during the month, although most of the precipitation associated with it evaporated before reaching Turlock. Turlock did get some sprinkles on the final day of the month though, so the opening month of the 2003-04 rainy season ended with a trace of rain. There was a historic rainfall event in Turlock and other parts of Stanislaus County on Aug 2 - more on that in next month's report!