Summer 2023 has been a split temperature-wise, with neither month– June or July– being extreme. June ended a degree above average, while July came in over a degree (1.3°) below average.
There have been no extreme temperatures. The warmest was 91° on June 1, and there were only 16 days with highs of 80° or above between the two months. The coolest was a chilly-but-above-freezing low of 36° on June 12. July’s coolest night was 46° on the 7th, while there was only one really warm and humid day during the month. That was last Thursday when it hit 86° for a high.
August begins at peak summer warmth with an average high of 76° and a low of 55° on the 1st. By month’s end, the normal high and low is 72° and 51°.
The hottest temperatures usually occur during the early portion of the month. Marquette, Iron Mountain, and Ironwood all topped 100° in early August 1947. The very next year, Marquette’s thermometer broke with tradition as the high hit 101° late in the month on the 24th.
Toward the end of the month, there may be a hint of fall in the air. The National Weather Service fell below freezing to 31° on August 30, 1976, while Iron Mountain froze at 30° on the 26th in 1945.
As for precipitation, August is the driest month of meteorological summer with an average rainfall of only 2.85″. Ironically, one of the wettest months on record occurred in August when the NWS had 8.59″ of rain in 1988.
