Has it been humid this summer in Phoenix?
Here is what the numbers say.
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — The monsoon typically comes with an increase in humidity, but has it been especially humid this summer?
Dew points are a great way to quantify how humid it feels. It generally starts to feel a little sticky when dew points get into the 50s, more humid when dew points get into the 60s, and especially humid when dew points get into the 70s.
Dew point data is not as readily available as temperature and precipitation data. To help retrieve the data, I used the website resource “Iowa Environmental Mesonet” from Iowa State University.
Let’s start by looking back at June. The average dew point for June this year was 45.8 degrees. That might not sound very humid, but keep in mind that this is a monthly average. June started dry, but there were some very humid days towards the end of the month. Interestingly, this past June ranked 5 out of the 35 Junes since 1990, so it was quite humid as far as Junes go!
This July ended up near the middle of the pack for humidity, with an average dew point of 57.3 degrees. Notice that the most humid July since 1990 was in 1999, with an average dew point of 65.8 degrees — that is quite sticky!
The month of August is not complete, so these numbers are not final. However, it’s worth looking at the data so far. August has been near the lower-middle of the pack since 1990, with an average dew point of 59.6 degrees.
Some dry days are on the way to end the week, but humidity may go up a bit by the weekend. It will be interesting to see where August finally stacks up in the rankings.
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