July rains/August heat - watching the tropics

Monday is here and welcome to August. This is a month where you'll definitely begin to notice the days getting shorter. We have over 14 hours of daylight here at the beginning of the month, but by August 31st, it's down to 13 hours. Our average high changes very little, going from 92 to 89.

July was a wet month for a bunch of areas, but not everywhere. Wichita was slammed by heavy rains over the 4th of July. So that gave us a boost and makes it one of the wetter July periods on record. Dodge City ended up with above normal rainfall. But it's a little different for Salina and Goodland, which both ended up below normal on moisture.

Wichita: 9.67" (+6.35 for July)

Dodge City: 5.30" (+2.22" for July)

Salina: 2.33" (-1.96" for July)

Goodland: 2.75" (-0.72" for July)

I'll take one more day to look at the long range models and try to get a handle on what's coming for the first 2-3 weeks of the month. We already know this will be a hot week, and there's a good chance most of next week will be too. But I'm confident we will not see a punishing heat wave or drought developing this month. In fact, we may just get an early taste of fall toward the end of August. I know we could make a lot of people happy if we could just get rid of some of the humidity. It's been stubborn to say the least.

We finally have something to watch in the tropics. There is an area of disturbed weather heading for Jamaica and Cuba. It's possible that before we get through Tuesday, we may have a tropical storm. The forecast track is likely going to continue west/northwest.