Looking Ahead to September

September arrives Tuesday. September 1st marks the beginning of meteorological autumn. Although fall doesn’t officially begin until September 22nd, weather people recognize the beginning of September as the real transition time between summer weather and fall weather.

The days are getting shorter. And with the lessened solar energy and our temperatures are on the way down. The decline will begin to grow during the month. On September 1, the average high in the Magic City is 88F. By the 31st, the average high will be 80F. Average lows at the beginning of the month are 67F. By month’s end, the average low will be 58F.

Interestingly enough, some of our hottest weather ever in Birmingham occurred in September 1925. During a horrific heatwave, daily records that still stand were established on eight straight days between the 2nd and 9th. The mercury reached a sizzling 106F on September 5th and 6th, the hottest ever seen here in any September and just one degree shy of the all time record high. The state’s all time record high was observed on September 5th that year with a reading of 112F at Centreville.

The coldest it has ever been in September is 37F on September 30 back in 1967.

Afternoon thunderstorms will become a rarity in September. On average, Birmingham sees four thunderstorm days during August. This is down from the nine we usually see in August and the 12 we see in July on average. Things are noticeably less humid, with an average dewpoint of 63F, about 5 degrees less than July.

We usually see about 4 inches of rain falling on 8 days. The most rain ever observed in September 1906, when 13.19 inches fell. Birmingham’s all time 24 hour record rainfall occurred on September 16, 2004 as Hurricane Ivan dumped 9.75 inches of rain on the city. The lowest September rainfall occurred in 1991, when only 0.07 inches fell.

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Category: Pre-November 2010 Posts