Salt Lake summer hot, dry, weather service says

Hot and dry — that's the official National Weather Service description of June, July and August for Salt Lake City.

Take away the first week of June and the last day of August, and that's exactly what it was — desert dry.

August finished at 109 percent of normal precipitation, thanks to that 0.78 inch of moisture on Aug. 31, according to a summary from the National Weather Service for the Salt Lake International Airport. That was an all-time record for the day, eclipsing the 0.32 inch of rain that fell on Aug. 31, 1975.

July precipitation was only 19 percent of normal, and June was 97 percent of normal. The lion's share of June's moisture fell on June 4-5, with 0.69 inch of rain.

But it has historically been drier in Salt Lake City. June 1994 only had a trace of rain, as did July 1963 and August 1944.

As usual, moisture falling in Utah's summer is a hit-and-miss affair. For example, Hanksville, Wayne County, received 1.87 inches of moisture in August. That's 340 percent of its normal total. Contrast that with Spanish Fork, which received just 0.01 inch of rain, or 1 percent of normal.

It was the fifth-warmest July on record for the Salt Lake International Airport. July's average temperature was 4.4 degrees above normal. June was 0.9 degrees above the norm, and August was 2.2 degrees over normal.

The hottest day of the summer was Aug. 1 at 103 degrees. July had two 102-degree days — July 4 and July 25. The warmest June day was 99 degrees on June 29.

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E-mail: lynn@desnews.com