BILLINGS- August 11 and 12 were two of the hottest days on record for August in Billings. On these afternoons, the mercury rose to 102 and 103 degrees respectively.
The fact that this happened on back-to-back days makes it that much more unique. In fact, since the turn of the century, there have not been back to back 100-degree days in Billings in August.
You have to go back to 2011 to find a single 100-degree day in August and 2008 to find an August where this occurred twice.
And the statistical weather oddities do not stop there.
On this August 20 and 21, there were back-to-back, sub-60 degree days. This too has not happened in August during the 21st century.
The 57-degree afternoon high temperature on August 21 was the coldest afternoon high temperature for August 21 on record and was 28 degrees below the average afternoon high temperature at this point in the year.
For those doing the math at home, that’s a 46-degree temperature swing over the course of a nine-day period.
And in between the high and low temperature extremes, we also broke a precipitation record. On August 18, the official precipitation total was 0.72 inches, almost doubling the old daily record.
While no single weather event can be attributed to climate change, these type of rapid and extreme weather swings are symptoms of a warming climate and will likely be more frequent in the coming summers.
