August 2026

[SACRUS]

Records:

Highs:

EWR: 95 (1947)
NYC: 94 (1972)
LGA: 93 (2020)
JFK: 94 (1995)




Lows:

EWR: 52 (1940)
NYC: 52 (1890)
LGA: 55 (1971)
JFK: 55 (1962)


Historical:

 

1785: A hurricane ravaged the area from St. Croix, Virgin Islands to Cuba during the last week of August beginning on this date. Over 142 people were reported dead from storm's impact. (Ref. Wilson Wx. History)

1814: The British army invaded Washington and set fire to the city on August 24th. The next day a line of severe thunderstorms spawned a tornado in Washington that killed several British solders and caused significant damage to the city. The heavy rainfall associated with the storm helped extinguish the fires that were burning throughout Washington. (p.31 Washington Weather Book 2002 by Ambrose, Henry, Weiss)

1827: A powerful hurricane struck North Carolina. The storm caused the Diamond Shoals Lightship to break away from its anchorage and drift away. Two crew members were lost during the storm. (Ref. Wilson Wx. History)

1893: A hurricane moved northeast of Puerto Rico, then moved north close to the New Jersey shore and into western Long Island, NY during the pre-dawn hours. Cape Henry, VA, measured a gust to 128 mph. Philadelphia, PA had a maximum 1-minute wind velocity of 55 mph. New York City recorded a daily rainfall record of 3.61 inches. This hurricane, still a Category 2 off New Jersey and washed away the Hog island. This storm retained its hurricane strength throughout its passage across New England, decreasing to tropical storm status over the mouth of the St Lawrence River. (Ref. Wilson Wx. History)

1906 - A cloudburst deluged Guinea, VA, with more than nine inches of rain in just forty minutes. (David Ludlum)

 

1910: An unusually strong dry cold front caused a considerable drop in temperature at Denver, CO. From 3 PM to Midnight the temperature fell from a high of 93° to a low of 40°. Sustained winds of 44 mph were reported during the late afternoon. The low of 40° set a daily record low and tied a record low for August. Cheyenne, WY dropped to 30°, their earliest freeze on record. (Ref. Wilson Wx. History)

1936: This date was a real scorcher across the Central and Northern Plains. Sioux Falls hit 109°, tying their second highest temperature on record. The record is 110 °F that was set on June 21, 1988. In fact, three of the four hottest temperatures ever recorded in Sioux Falls occurred in 1936, which not coincidentally is the hottest summer on record across much of the Northern Plains. (Ref. Wilson Wx. History)

1948: The following locations recorded their hottest August temperature: Mather, WI: 107° (also their hottest day on record), Mondovi, WI: 104°, Winona, MN: 103°, and Rochester, MN: 100°, also tying their hottest August temperature with several other dates: 8/3/1930, 8/4/1947, 8/15/1936, 8/23/1948. (Ref. Wilson Wx. History)

1952: It was a record braking chilly morning across the Mid-Atlantic States. Layton, NJ dropped to 33° and Runyon, NJ fell to 37°. It came close to the states all-time record low for August that occurred at Layton & Charlottesburg on 8/25/1940 when they fell to 32°. Other daily record lows included: Elkins, WV: 40°-Tied, Binghamton, NY: 45°, Buffalo, NY: 47°, Allentown, PA: 47°, Wilmington, DE: 48°, Baltimore, MD: 48°, Huntington, WV: 48°-Tied, Harrisburg, PA: 49°-Tied, Richmond, VA: 50° and New York (LaGuardia Airport), NY: 59°. (Ref. AccWeather Weather History)

1968 - Lightning struck the Crawford County fairgrounds in northwest Pennsylvania killing two persons and injuring 72 others. (The Weather Channel)

 

1974: Central New Jersey--A brief lightning storm killed one person on the beach in Long Island Township. Maine--A line of thunderstorms developed across the southern part of the state. Severe lightning caused two deaths at Rockland. (Ref. Lightning-The Underrated Killer.pdf)

1975: Lansdale, PA in Montgomery County received over 5 inches of rain in 2 hours. (Ref. Wilson Wx. History)

1984: Southern Alaska: Remnants of Tropical Storm Holly bring heavy rains and snows to parts of southern Alaska. Four-foot snow drifts are reported at Denali National Park. (Ref. WxDoctor)

1987 - Autumn-like weather prevailed across the north central and northeastern U.S. Seven cities reported record low temperatures for the date, including Saint Cloud MN with a low of 37 degrees. Temperatures in Florida soared to 98 degrees at Pensacola and 99 degrees at Jacksonville. Thunderstorms produced heavy rain in the Southern High Plains Region, with 5.40 inches at Union NM, and 7.25 inches reported west of Anthony NM. (The National Weather Summary)

1988 - Thunderstorms in the Delaware Valley of eastern Pennsylvania produced wind gusts to 95 mph around Philadelphia, and gusts to 100 mph at Warminster. A tropical depression drenched the Cabo Rojo area of southwestern Puerto Rico with up to ten inches of rain. San Juan received 5.35 inches of rain. (Storm Data) (The National Weather Summary)

1989 - Late afternoon and evening thunderstorms produced severe weather in eastern Montana and western sections of the Dakotas. Thunderstorms in Montana produced wind gusts to 76 mph at Jordan, and golf ball size hail at Rock Springs, which collected three to four feet deep in ditches. Lewiston ID reported a record 1.50 inches of rain for the date, and a record rainfall total for August of 2.63 inches. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)

 

1991: Eastern North Dakota suffered severe hail damage from stones that were as big as 6 inches near Lisbon. Windows were smashed, cars heavily damaged, holes punched in roofs and 16,000 acres of crops were destroyed. (Ref. AccWeather Weather History)

1992 - Hurricane Andrew made landfall in southern Florida at 4:30 AM on this day. The high winds caused catastrophic damage in Florida, with Miami-Dade County cities of Florida City, Homestead, and Cutler Ridge receiving the brunt of the storm. About 63,000 homes were destroyed, and over 101,000 others were damaged. This storm left roughly 175,000 people homeless. As many as 1.4 million people were left without electricity at the height of the storm. In the Everglades, 70,000 acres (280 km2) of trees were knocked down. Additionally, rainfall in Florida was substantial, peaking at 13.98 in (355 mm) in western Miami-Dade County. About $25 billion in damage and 44 fatalities were reported in Florida.

 

2005: Tropical depression 12 would be named Tropical Storm "Katrina" during the morning. Katrina went on to become the costliest and one of the most deadly hurricanes to ever strike the U.S. (Ref. Wilson Wx. History)

[SACRUS]

On 8/17/2026 at 8:22 PM, SACRUS said:

 

 

 

 

 

Weekly update SST:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[forkyfork]

another missed ridge

[forkyfork]

[bluewave]

37 minutes ago, SACRUS said:

Weekly update SST:

North Atlantic close to the all-time warmest set back in 2023.

 

 

 

[SACRUS]

49 minutes ago, forkyfork said:

Euro and cm can have been showing the ridge/warmth potential for Aug 31 - labor day on several runs.

[LibertyBell]

23 hours ago, winterwx21 said:

I got 0.95" here this morning. All this rain combined with the lack of heat is great for the romaine lettuce plants that I have out there now for the fall. They are taking off. I'm glad the next few days look great though -- we definitely could use a drying out period. 

Yuck lol can't grow any of that here the rabbits and deer would eat everything. 

 

On the plus side though the big rabbits that I have here eat all the weeds and are quite tame and look at me quite calmly while I snap pictures of them near one of my ponds. 

August is a lost month around here and no longer part of summer I'd say. It's not quite fall either though I'd say our summers have become limited to June and July while August and September can be considered part of a new fifth season we could call the monsoon season like what they have in India and the SW. There's a nearly total lunar eclipse that peaks at 93% at 12:12 am on Friday but as usual it will be too cloudy to see anything.  Two clear days out of seven is not my idea of summer. Normal summer weather in our area should at a bare minimum include 6 clear days out of 7 and I'd strive for 9 clear days out of 10 with one inch of rain every 10 days.

[MANDA]

2 hours ago, bluewave said:

Looks like the last week of August will feature near average temperatures.

 

2 hours ago, bluewave said:

Looks like the last week of August will feature near average temperatures.

Nice way to end meteorological summer! To me at least out in my area of NWNJ the summer did not seem all that hot.  There were hot days for sure but it was not endless day after day to 90+ out this way.  Humidity was another story so glad to get break from that.  

[MANDA]

39 minutes ago, bluewave said:

North Atlantic close to the all-time warmest set back in 2023.

 

 

 

Waters off the east coast certainly lost the chill of early to mid summer in a hurry.