Buresh Blog: July suddenly turns cool!... August averages

July 31, 2019 — "Talking the Tropics With Mike" - updated every single day during the hurricane season!

After a hot start to July - the avg. temp. was nearly 3 degrees above avg. in mid July.... a big turn-around with 9 straight days below avg. leveling the "playing field" in what will end up being a July that was only slightly above avg. Once again - there's no such thing as "normal" in the weather world :)

So as we move into Aug..... two weather "things" stand out in my mind. The avg. high temp. dips below 90 degrees by late in the month & we LOSE 48 min. of daylight(!). Averages at JIA for August:

Low / High: 1st: 73 / 92 degrees..... 31st: 72 / 89 degrees

Rainfall: 6.80"

Sunrise / Sunset: 1st - 6:45am / 8:21pm.... 31st - 7:03am / 7:51pm > -48 min.

Last week - week of July 24th - I examined building codes for Northeast Fl. as it relates to hurricanes. Interestingly.... Jacksonville & nearby areas have some of the lowest building codes in Florida. The million dollar question is "are we tempting fate"? Yes - we have the lowest percent chance in all of Fl. of being hit by a Cat. 3 or stronger hurricane BUT that chance is NOT zero. My story begins at Florida International U. where there is a state of the art wind machine - WOW - "Wall of Wind". The story ends with an examination of building codes as it relates to high winds. It's often been said that mitigation & preparation is the key to resiliency after a storm. You can find the story * here *.

Florida wind speed building codes:

For Jacksonville & the NE Fl. coastline.... a hurricane comes within 50 miles - on average - every 12 - 16 years. The last hurricane to make such a close approach was Matthew when the eye's closest approach was 45 miles offshore of Jacksonville Beach. The last hurricane with an eye that truly crossed our coast - "Dora" in 1964 - 55 years ago(!).