The daily weather log

The month had no extremes of heat or cold. Frosts (10) were almost as rare as in August 2011 (9). Some overcast skies came with 5.8 mm of rain on the 17th then, from the 25th, there were five cloudless mornings bringing very warm weather. Altogether, only three days had rain (usually 6).

Comparing August months

After July having temperatures two degrees above normal, this month’s maximum was only one degree up, and the minimum just on normal. While the air was not as extremely dry as it was last August, the morning dew point was still very low: 2.7 degrees below normal. In contrast, the subsoil temperature remained extremely high, at 16.6°, 2.7° above normal.
Total rainfall is far below the average of 39.5 mm. At 6.4 mm, it is in the 9th percentile: since 1888, only 10 August months have been drier. In totals for two months and more, there is no serious shortage of rainfall, although nearly all totals up to 18 months are now below the median. Totals for all longer periods (up to 360 months) are above the median.

Data. Rainfall data is from Manilla Post Office, courtesy of Phil Pinch. Temperatures, including subsoil at 750 mm, and other data are from 3 Monash Street, Manilla.