Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Weather Hot, Dry

No one has to be told, but here it is anyway: August was hot and dry.

Officially, only 80 hundredths of an inch of rain was recorded in August by John Teeter of the National Weather Service. This was 2.63 inches shy of the normal 3.43 inches.

Normal rainfall through for the first eight months of the year is 36.27 inches, according to Teeter. However, only 27.99 inches have been recorded, putting Prescott 8.28 inches on the minus side.

Rain fell only three days during August, Teeter said. There were no weather watches or warnings.

The driest August on record is 1929, when only eight hundredths of an inch was recorded. The wettest August on record is 1974, when 14.53 inches were recorded.

"The summer of 1995 will be remembered as one of the longest periods without significant rainfall in Southern Nevada County," Davis Benton, Cale resident and former meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said.

Benton said less than an inch of rain fell in a 57-day period in July and August. He recorded no rain during the month of August. The last measurable rain before September 4 was July 26. Prior to that date the last significant rainfall in the region was July 5, according to Benton.

Teeter said the average temperature August in Prescott was 84.9 degrees, which is 3.2 degrees above the normal average of 81.7 degrees. He recorded seven days in August above 100 degrees; 102 degrees on the 18th and the 31st were the highest.

The record August high in Prescott is 109 degrees in 1954, Teeter said in his report. In 1936, 1954 and 1980 there were 20 days or more in August with temperatures above 100 degrees, Teeter said.

August was also the hottest month on record since 1980 at Cale, Benton said. In all there were 16 days when the temperature reached 100 degrees or more, he said. The highest temperature recorded during the month was 105.

These figures, according to Benton, are based on Cale records kept for the past 18 years.

Teeter said the normal rainfall for September is 4.58 inches. The normal average temperature is 75.3 degrees.