The Amazing First Week of July 1940

The high on Friday was 75F at the Shuttlesworth Birmingham International Airport. It was only the 81st time in 113 years that a July day didn’t get out of the 70s. It also made two straight days with highs in the 70s.

If we don’t make it to 80F today, which is a pretty good bet, it will be the first time since July 1940 that we have had at least three consecutive days without an 80F reading. That’s rare.

In fact, three consecutive days in July with highs in the 70s has only happened two other times since 1900. The other time was in July 1916, when a dying tropical cyclone brought Birmingham its wettest month ever.

The remnants of the July 5th hurricane that struck the Mobile area on July 5, 1916 drifted north and east to a position near Birmingham, AL. The Magic City received 8.84 inches of rain in 24 hours, which was the all-time daily record for nearly a century (until Hurricane Ivan). Another hurricane would make landfall near Pensacola later in the month and dump more heavy rain on Birmingham, where the monthly rainfall total reached 20.16 inches, a monthly record that still stands.

Source: Alabama State Climatologist’s Data Page.

Birmingham’s coldest July high temperature occurred on July 6, 1940. Here is the weather map from that day:

But the first week of July in 1940 was an amazing one, with six straight days in the 70s for highs at Birmingham. We did not get excessively heavy rains here, with only only 3.84 inches at the official station that was in Fountain Heights. The culprit that week was a persistent area of low pressure near New Orleans sat and spun, pumping moisture into the southeastern United States.

While Birmingham didn’t get disastrous rainfall, widespread heavy rains were reported across the Gulf States according to the Monthly Weather Review. Here is a map of the rainfalls observed:

Birmingham’s coldest July day came during that week on July 6, 1940, when the high was only 69F.

Category: Alabama's Weather, Met 101/Weather History