Source: NC CLIMATE OFFICE, 9/13/21


After sliding through this June and July with relatively few hot days, it may have seemed like we were out of the woods when it came to summer’s highest heat. But then came August and hundred-degree temperatures in the eastern Piedmont and Sandhills.

Existing datasets tell us that our hottest weather typically occurs in July, so how rare is it to hit our maximum mercury levels in August? Or even later?

Using historical observations from 65 weather stations in the National Weather Service’s Cooperative Observer network with at least 30 years of data, we calculated not only when the hottest temperatures most commonly occur (spoiler: it’s still July), but also how early and late in the year they’ve historically happened.

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