July on Long Island: Second-hottest on record

Hot, yes. Hottest? Not quite.

The July just finished was the second-hottest on Long Island since the National Weather Service started keeping records at Long Island MacArthur Airport, the agency said Sunday. The average of each day's high and low temperatures was 78 degrees.

Only one July - in 1999 - was hotter, with an average of 78.6, said meteorologist Lauren Nash.

The average high temperature at the Ronkonkoma airport was 86.9 degrees. In July 1999, it was 87.9.

The weather service began keeping records at MacArthur in 1984.

At Brookhaven National Laboratory, which has been keeping records since 1947, the hottest July was in 1994, when the average temperature was 76.9. In 1999, the monthly average temperature there was 76.3. A normal July temperature is 71.78 degrees.

Nash said the local hot weather is the result of a high pressure system that built over the region. And though the temperatures were on the high side, she said the weather pattern is actually "pretty normal for our area."

At Central Park in Manhattan, where records date to 1869, it was also the second-hottest July on record, behind only 1999. In 1999, the month closed with a streak of nine consecutive 90-plus-degree days to set the all-time mark. That streak didn't end until Aug. 3, after 11 straight 90-degree days.

Locally, the coming week should see more reasonable - and very nice - weather, with highs expected to be in the low 80s through Wednesday, with a less-than-50-percent chance for a "pop-up thunderstorm," but no sustained rain, Nash said.