Florida - Thursday August 10, 2023: The National Weather Service in Melbourne reports that July 2023 was hotter than normal with near to above normal rainfall across east central Florida.
Similar to the pattern in June, high pressure over the west Atlantic generally remained extended south of central Florida through July. This continued a predominant west to southwest flow across the area that kept temperatures above normal and also focused scattered to numerous showers and storms toward the eastern side of the Florida
peninsula most days. The overall hot temperatures during the month ranked July 2023 within the top ten warmest on record at all primary climate sites across east central Florida. Rainfall also remained near to above normal for most locations in July, especially toward the coast.
TEMPERATURES
It was a steamy start to July, with highs rising into the low to mid 90s at the coast and mid to upper 90s over the interior for the first several days of the month. Sanford actually tied their record high for the 4th of July, reaching 98 degrees that afternoon, and Leesburg set a new record high of 98 degrees on the 5th. Overnight lows also remained warmer than normal at the start of the month, with lows in the mid to upper 70s tying or exceeding record warm lows on both of these days at a few locations.
Predominant west to southwest winds due to the subtropical ridge axis remaining largely south of the area through the month, helped delay or prevent the east coast sea breeze from forming and pushing inland. This allowed highs to reach the low to mid 90s most days, before afternoon showers and storms typically developed and brought some relief from the heat later in the day. A weak tropical wave that increased rainfall and onshore winds to the area on the 27th, did keep highs in the mid to upper 80s on the 27th, and Sanford actually set a new record lowest maximum temperature that day, with a high of 86 degrees.
Overall, the hotter conditions through the month led to average temperature departures for July 2023 that were up to 1 to 2 degrees above normal. July 2023 ranked within the top 10 warmest at all primary climate sites, and at Vero Beach it actually tied for warmest July on record for this site, tying July 2005. It also tied July 2005 and August 2011 as the 2nd warmest month ever on record at Vero Beach, ending up one tenth of a degree shy of the record warmest month of August 2020 at this site, which had a monthly
average temperature of 83.8 degrees. Elsewhere, July 2023 ranked as the 2nd warmest month at Daytona Beach, 3rd warmest at Sanford and Orlando, 5th warmest (tying 2019/2010) at Melbourne, 6th warmest (tying 2010) at Fort Pierce, and 7th warmest (tying 2011) at Leesburg. Adding in this hot July also continues year-to-date average temperature values that rank as warmest to 2nd warmest for most sites across east central Florida.
Daily Record Temperatures for the Month
Vero Beach:
- July 7th: Record high of 96 degrees. Previous record was 95 degrees last set in 2009.
- July 9th: Tied record high of 96 degrees last set in 1981.
Fort Pierce:
- No daily temperature records set or tied.
Average temperatures for July 2023
- Vero Beach had a monthly average temperature of 83.7 degrees Fahrenheit, which was 1.8 degrees above normal. This ties July 2005 as the warmest July on record for the site, with records dating back to 1942.
- Fort Pierce had a monthly average temperature of 83.2 degrees Fahrenheit, which was 1.8 degrees above normal. This ties July 2010 as the 6th warmest July on record for the site, with records dating back to 1901.
RAINFALL
The first couple days of July started off dry, but rainfall picked up for the rest of the month as a predominant west to southwest wind flow often steered scattered to numerous showers and storms toward the east side of the state. While the east coast sea breeze was still able to develop in this offshore flow most days, it was often
slow to move inland, which focused late day sea breeze boundary collisions and increased storm coverage near the east central Florida coast. This led to locally heavy rainfall at times, and in fact the majority of the daily rainfall records that occurred during the month were at our coastal climate sites.
Total rainfall for the month ranged up to around 8 to 12 inches along much of the coast, locally up to 15 inches in Brevard County, and closer to around 4 to 8 inches across the interior and across the southern Treasure Coast. Overall these rainfall amounts were generally near to above normal for much of the area, but localized spots that had totals that were on the low end of this range, ended up drier than normal for July. The wide range in monthly precipitation amounts led to some interesting rankings.
Melbourne and Vero Beach had between 11 to 12 inches of total rainfall, which ranked July 2023 as the 2nd and 4th wettest, respectively, at these sites. However, at Sanford, only 3.70 inches of rain fell for the month, which ranked July 2023 as the 9th driest on record at this location.
Daily Record Rainfall for the Month
Vero Beach:
- July 17th: Record rainfall of 1.40 inches. Previous record was 1.04 inches set in 1995.
- July 28th: Record rainfall of 2.29 inches. Previous record was 1.20 inches set in 2021.
- July 31st: Record rainfall of 3.23 inches. Previous record was 1.81 inches set in 1955.
Fort Pierce:
- July 31st: Record rainfall of 3.88 inches. Previous record was 1.90 inches set in 1962.
July 2023 Rainfall Totals
- Vero Beach received 11.95 inches of rain for the month, which was 6.27 inches above normal. This ranks as the 4th wettest July on record for this site, with records going back to 1942.
- Fort Pierce received 8.62 inches of rain for the month, which was 2.77 inches above normal.