MANKATO — Normal, normal and more normal.
That’s how July shaped up for weather, and how August is looking, said Tyler Hasenstein, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Chanhassen.
“It was fairly quiet overall,” he said of July. “We had a couple of more exciting days. The month started off pretty wet with four out of the first five days having measured precipitation and then we were pretty much dry until we had an inch of rain that fell on the 10th. There were some thunderstorms and after that we were pretty much dry until yesterday.”
For precipitation, the Mankato area had 3.5 inches of rain for the month, Hasenstein said, which is just a tad dry. Normal for the month of July would be 4.3 inches of rain.
Rainfall on the last day of July into the early morning hours of Thursday measured 1.5 to 3 inches in the Mankato area.
As for temperature, the area ended the month right on normal, he said, with an average of 72 degrees.
The area did experience temperature highs from the low 80s to near 90s, which is compared to a daily average high for Mankato of 81 degrees. An average low is 64 degrees for Mankato for July, whereas the average lows last month were from the mid 60s to low 70s.
As for what’s coming in August, there will be a hot start and then a cool down during the second week of the month, Hasenstein said. Temps will be normal, which is an average of 69 degrees, an average high of 78 degrees and an average low of 60 degrees.
For rain, the forecast is for an average rainfall of 3.75 inches, he said.
“We’re not expecting anything too out of the ordinary for August in Minnesota,” Hasenstein said. “I’m not expecting long, hot stretches or truly significant large systems. Most of our rain will come from general showers and thunderstorms.”
It’s hot now, but will cool down starting Saturday. It will remain cool during mid August but the second half of the month is still unknown, he said.