In honor of the 4th, here is the history of Independence Day climatology and extreme weather events.
Normals
High: 85
Low: 65
Mean: 75
Precipitation: 0.15″
# of July 4ths Where the Maximum was…
100 or Above: 3
90 or Above: 34
80 and Above: 104
79 and Below: 31
69 and Below: 2
# of July 4ths Where the Minimum was…
70 or Above: 26
60 or Above: 95
59 or Below: 40
49 or Below: 2
Top 5 Warmest Highs
1. 1911: 104
2. 1897: 102
3. 2012: 100
4. 1919: 97
5. 1900, 1921, 1949, 2002: 96
Top 5 Coldest Highs
1. 1882, 1922: 69
2. 1924, 1967, 1978, 2008: 71
3. 1909, 1927, 1972, 1979: 72
4. 1920: 73
5. 1937, 1989: 74
Top 5 Warmest Lows
1. 1911: 79
2. 1897, 1900, 1999: 75
3. 1879, 1921: 74
4. 1883, 1902, 2012: 73
5. 1899, 1919, 1991, 2004: 72
Top 5 Coldest Lows
1. 1968: 47
2. 1963: 49
3. 1996: 50
4. 1986: 51
5. 1927, 1940: 52
# of July 4ths where Precipitation was…
0: 65
Trace: 18
0.01-0.24: 32
0.25-0.49: 8
0.50-0.74: 8
0.75-0.99: 2
1.00 and Above: 2
Top 10 Wettest
1. 1984: 1.38″
2. 1935: 1.04″
3. 1915: 0.86″
4. 1932: 0.84″
5. 1957: 0.66″
6. 2008: 0.61″
7. 1939: 0.60″
8. 2003: 0.59″
9. 1926: 0.58″
10. 2006: 0.56″
Ohio’s most infamous July 4th weather event, occurred in 1969. Severe thunderstorms developed over southeastern Michigan and moved southeastward into the Ohio lakeshore communities around 7:30PM on July 4th. Every lakeshore community from Toledo to Cleveland was affected, as well as areas further inland. The storms continuously trained over the same areas from Lucas to Wayne counties for several hours, dropping torrential rains, tornadoes, high winds, hail and lightning. Rainfall in a 100-mile stretch from just southeast of Toledo into Wayne County totaled 6″-14″. These rains caused record local flooding. All told, the storms of July 4th-5th, 1969 caused $65 million in damage, damaged or destroyed 10,000 homes, 7,000 cars, 104 businesses, 300 mobile homes and more than 700 boats. 41 people were killed and 559 were injured, mostly from flooding. This was the 3rd most damaging flood in Ohio history, behind January 1959 and March 1913. Columbus was too far south to see any of the storms and received just 0.03″ of rain for the period.
