Bethlehem, New Hampshire

record event report ... corrected
National Weather Service Gray ME
400 PM EDT Thursday Jul 09 2009

... More record cold weather for Portland Maine...

The temperature at the Portland jetport only reached 58 degrees
yesterday. This set a record for the coldest high temperature on
July 7th. The old record was 59 degrees set in 1961. To put this in
another perspective... the normal low temperature for July 7th is 58
degrees.

The low temperature on Wednesday was 55 degrees. This produced a
range of only 3 degrees between the high and low temperatures which
is a record for the smallest daily range in temperatures on July
7th. The old record was a 4 degree spread set in 1963 and 1995.

The 3 degree daily temperature range yesterday also tied the record
for the smallest daily temperature range for any day in July. The
record was established on July 16th, 1961 and occurred five more
times before this year.

The average temperature yesterday was 57 degrees... which tied 1961
as the coldest average temperature for July 7th.

The high of 58 yesterday tied July 6th of 1956 as the second coldest
high ever recorded at the Portland jetport in July. The coldest high
ever in July was 57 degrees on the 4th of July in 1992.

On the 1st and 2nd of this month Portland only reached 59 degrees
both days... setting records for the coldest high temperature each
day and also tying several other days for the fourth coldest high
ever recorded in July.

Portland has set a record cold high temperature four out of the
first eight days this month. Here is a list of the record cold high
temperatures so far this month...

Date high temp. 2009 old record high and year
July 1st 59 degrees 62 degrees in 1976
July 2nd 59 degrees 63 degrees in 1986
July 7th 60 degrees 64 degrees in 1956
July 8th 58 degrees 59 degrees in 1961

Here is a list of the coldest high temperatures ever recorded in the
month of July at the Portland jetport. Four of the ten coldest
highs occurred in the first eight days of this month...

Rank temperature date
1 57 degrees July 4, 1992
2 58 degrees July 6, 1956
           58 degrees July 8, 2009 <===
4 59 degrees July 8, 1961
           59 degrees July 16, 1961
           59 degrees July 30, 1976
           59 degrees July 3, 1987
           59 degrees July 1, 2009 <===
           59 degrees July 2, 2009 <===
10 60 degrees July 7, 2009 <===
11 61 degrees several dates

The normal high temperature for the month of July is 78.8 degrees.

Along with the cold weather portlanders have also had to deal with
soaking rain this month. There have been three days so far with
around an inch and a half of rain. Rainfall of 1.41 inches fell on
the 2nd, 1.57 inches fell on the 7th and 1.50 inches fell on the 8th.

The 1.41 inches on the 2nd set a record for daily precipitation for
the date... topping the old record of 1.32 inches set in 1983. The
1.57 inches on the 7th was also a record... breaking the old mark for
the date of 1.34 inches set in 1935. The 1.50 inches on the 8th was
far short of the record 3.66 inches that fell on July 8th, 1915.

Temperature records at the Portland jetport began on November 25,
1940 and precipitation records go back to 1871.

&&

Note... corrected date in second table and added normal high for July.

... New Hampshire volunteers wanted to measure precipitation...
...
A citizen-driven weather observation program is now established in
New Hampshire and residents are invited to become amateur observers
for the group by measuring and reporting rainfall... hail... and snow
data in their own backyards. On July first... New Hampshire became
the forty-sixth state to join the community collaborative rain,
hail, and snow network, or cocorahs for short. This unique,
nonprofit community-based network of volunteers works together to
advance the understanding of local weather and its impacts. These
observations are used by the NOAA... National Weather Service to help
improve and verify the accuracy and timeliness of forecasts and
warnings. Currently... the locations where we have the fewest number
of volunteer observers are Coos... Sullivan... Cheshire... Belknap
... Merrimack..and Grafton counties... although citizens from all
across New Hampshire are asked to join. Cocorahs is expected to
reach Maine by August first.
...
For more information visit the following websites:
...
Www.Weather.Gov/gray
...
Www.Cocorahs.Org