The heat has been blistering this summer, and the rain was slow to arrive.
Records from the Southeast Climate Center show the average high temperature at Jacksonville Beach was 94.3°F degrees for the month of July. This puts the average temp and high max temp in the top spot over 79 years of record keeping.
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The beach was hotter than Jacksonville International Airport, which had its 22nd hottest July on record at 92.6°F. But while it may be surprising that the town was cooler than the coast, Jacksonville Beach continues to see a trend of record hot July months.
In fact, four of the last five Julys on Jacksonville Beach have all ranked consecutively the hottest on record.
Jacksonville Beach
Jacksonville International Airport
The heat was felt across the entire nation. It was the third hottest on record for the U.S., coming in 2.8°F above average, resulting in historic flooding juxtaposed to intensifying drought.
Several heat waves, with daytime temperatures over 100°F, occurred across much of the U.S. during July, contributing to record energy demand and heat-related illnesses.
A stalled frontal system, combined with rich Gulf moisture, resulted in historic flash-flooding events across portions of Missouri and Kentucky on July 26 and 28, respectively.
North Florida drought erased
The rain finally came in July, bringing an end to the driest June on record in Jacksonville’s history. June’s all-time driest rain total was only 1.17 inches for the month, breaking the 1.25 total set in 1879. Drought crept into the Suwannee Valley and southern Georgia just before relief came the following month.
July turned out the Jacksonville’s seventh wettest on record for a total of 9.92 inches, resulting in a surplus of over three inches.
According to the St. Johns River Water Management District, groundwater levels at the end of July were mostly in the normal range across the district, except for eastern Duval and northern St. Johns counties, where conditions were in the low or very low range.
Out west climate change is having a great impact on the long-term drought that may be the worst in 12 centuries. A visual example is how dry the largest reservoir in the United States has become during the last three years in July.
Lake Mead stands at its lowest since April 1937, when the reservoir was still being filled for the first time. As of July 18, 2022, Lake Mead was filled to just 27 percent of capacity.