Today’s Almanac (07/06/2024)

Today has been a fantastic day for much of the viewing area with plenty of sunshine and warmer temperatures than what we have commonly been seeing as of late. Some of area has seen a bit of thunderstorm activity, but this activity has remained generally isolated. Your average summer day in summary.

With that said, where do we fall compared to average regarding highs, lows, and rainfall?

The average high for this time of year is still 81F and will be for a while yet as we head through the middle of summer. Our high today across much of the area was at around 80F, so just a degree shy of the climatological average. Progress from where we were only a few days ago!

The average low is 61F. Most areas saw lows in the low 60F’s last night, with a few upper 50F’s in northern Iowa. So not too far off from the average low either, which again is progress from where we were last week.

The record high in the area was 102F set back in 1936…makes 80F seem chilly! The record low was 43F set back in 1934…making for a 59F degree difference between the record high temperature and the record low temperature!

Precipitation wise, Minnesota has outpaced Iowa in terms of anomalous rainfall, with Rochester seeing 6.11″ of extra rain than average for the summer so far. Mason City has seen much less of a surplus, but still has seen 1.82″ of extra rain.

In terms of yearly rainfall, Rochester is checking in with 24.03″ of rain and Mason City with 23.97″ of rain for the year.