As one might expect, temps are on the rise

July is always an important anniversary for me. After being a janitor at Channel 3 for more than a year, the bosses there showed no sign of promoting me; so, on July 2, 1987 I started at Channel 6 on the technical crew. Man, I was tempted to quit after that first night because of the hectic pace. I didn’t think all that stress was worth $3.35 an hour. But, like a good Iron Range Finn, I stuck it out.

My interest in becoming part of the news media goes back to the ’70s when my father lent me his Super 8 film camera. He used it to shoot all the cool events in Ely, including the Fourth of July parades from 1970 to 1982.

With that film evidence, I can swear it was cold enough for flurries during the parade of 1977. Several of my friends agree it happened, but recently I stumbled across an online article from a Department of Natural Resources climatologist who scoffed at the frequent claims of Ely area snow in July. I got hold of this fellow, who showed me climate records of Tower and Ely both getting into the 80s on July 4 in both 1977 and 1978.

This July we probably won’t have to worry about flurries. The long-range forecast for 2019 indicates we’ll be one degree warmer than normal on average. Rain may total one inch more than normal.

It should be warm and stormy July 1-7. July 8-17 should be warm but dry. It should be clear and cool July 18-24, and July 25-31 should be rainy and mild.

Speaking of being mild, we did start to go that direction in June. That month turned up 1.6 degrees warmer than normal, according to the records kept at the National Weather Service office in Duluth. In the first half of 2019, two months have been warmer than normal, six have been cooler than normal, and we have a year-to-date departure below normal mean temperature of 1.3 degree.

For those looking for some summer-style heat before winter descends upon us again, the extra-long-range forecast looks like this: for heat, warm spells are possible late July and into August; but September and October will return to near-normal temperatures.