SYRACUSE, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — We are wrapping up a busy month weather-wise in Syracuse. From extreme heat to another round of wildfire smoke, we recap July’s weather below…
A warmer than average month
We started off meteorological summer in Syracuse on a warmer than average note, and that theme continued into July.
We ended the month with a mean temperature (considering the average of all the daily highs and lows) of 73.5 degrees. That is 1.7 degrees above normal.
The hottest day of the month was July 14 when the high was 98 degrees. The coolest temperature recorded was 51 degrees on the 24th.
Lots of July rain…for some
While we only picked up 1.87 inches of rain in Syracuse during the month of July, which ended up being almost two inches below average, other parts of Central New York picked up substantially more rainfall.
Take a look at the 30-day precipitation map from the New York State Mesonet. Some areas south of Syracuse picked up over 8 inches of rain in the last month.
Look toward the Capital Region and Hudson Valley—some spots there saw over a foot of rainfall. Most of that rain fell in the last few days of the month due to a slow moving area of low pressure crossing through our region. All of that rain led to a considerable amount of flash flooding across parts of Eastern New York.
The return of wildfire smoke
Wildfires burning in parts of south-central Canada and the upper Midwest once again led to a plume of smoke rolling across our skies in Central New York during the middle of the month.
While the air quality did not get as bad locally as it did in 2023, it was still classified as unhealthy at times starting July 15-18. The smoke also helped to keep temperatures several degrees lower than they otherwise would have been that week…