JULY QUIETLY BREAKS HEAT RECORD OF '80

Cape Girardeau was a hot spot in more ways than one last month.

Amid historic flood levels, the city experienced its warmest July on record.

The average temperature last month was 83.63 degrees, barely breaking the record of 83.61 degrees set in July 1980, said Al Robertson, professor of geosciences at Southeast Missouri State University.

"What I think was unique in this whole July situation was that it was consistently high all month," said Robertson. "It was in the 90s every day except for four days."

But unlike 1980, when there were nine days in July with temperatures of 100 or better, the high temperature last month reached 100 degrees only once, that occurring Wednesday.

This was the first July in three years where the official temperature reached 100 degrees, said Robertson.

On average, he said, the area usually experiences one or two 100-degree days in July.

The previous record as to average-daily temperature occurred during the 1980 heat wave, a scorcher of a summer where the talk was of temperature relief in the sun-baked Midwest, not flood relief.

Robertson said last month was the hottest July in terms of average daily temperature since local weather record-keeping began in 1946.

But while rains pelted much of the flood-ravaged Midwest last month, the Cape Girardeau area received only 2.43 inches of rain. That's slightly less than the average precipitation in Cape Girardeau in July of 3.13 inches, Robertson said.

The sameness of the weather last month was due to a stationary front, he said. "We were dominated by a high pressure cell and tropical winds coming northward," he said.

Cooler days could be ahead, said Robertson. The National Weather Service's 30-day forecast is calling for below-normal temperatures in August.