SACRAMENTO, Calif —
Coming off California's third hottest July in recorded history, the big question is what comes next for August. So far, it appears cooler weather will prevail -- at least to start the month.
High temperatures are forecast to top out in the upper 80s through Thursday in Sacramento. The cooler weather is due to low pressure transporting cooler air from the Northern Pacific, along with a shot of monsoonal moisture from the south that will increase thunderstorm risk over the Sierra and could bring some spotty cloud cover to the rest of the state.
This summer has proven to be a battleground between a strong ridge of high pressure centered over the Desert Southwest and low pressure spinning over the Pacific Northwest. California has spent much of the summer sandwiched between the two. However, when the ridge shifts to the west, California sees hotter temperatures, but this week the low pressure system is winning out and temperatures will be more mild as a result.
How common are high temperatures in the 80s in August?
August is climatologically the second hottest month of the year, trailing only behind July in terms of average high temperature (August is 93.5 degrees and July is 94.4)
As for the average number of days that fail to reach at least 90 degrees, that number is 8 (based on data from 1990-present). July, on the other hand, has on average just slightly less (7 days). So while it isn't all that common, it isn't rare at all either.
The last time downtown Sacramento picked up a high temperature lower than 90 was on July 9, when the temperature didn’t even happen to reach 80 degrees. The afternoon high temperature peaked at 79 degrees.
Less than half of years record a high temperature below 80 degrees in July. The 22-day streak could come to an end on Tuesday with a high temperature of 88 forecast for Sacramento. Wednesday and Thursday are supposed to be slightly cooler, with forecast highs of 87 and 86, respectively.
Every August dating back to 1990 has recorded at least one day with a high temperature below 90 degrees but the scorching summer of 2017 produced only 3 such days between July and August, with all those days occurring during mid-late August.
The first day with the average high temperature below 90 is September 17, so the heat isn't expected to abandon California anytime soon.
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