An average high temperature of 96.6 degrees through Monday. That was a whopping 2.5
degrees warmer than July 1960, in the heat of the Cold War and the city's previous hottest month.
Just one day when the thermometer didn't reach 90. We'll look back warmly on Thursday, the 19th,
when it topped out at a grab-the-parka 87.
Eleven, count 'em, days of 100-degree (or better) temperatures. The most recent was Sunday,
when triple-digit readings mixed with smoke in the valleys from an outburst of wildfires.
An all-time record high of 107 degrees on July 6, so hot the statue of the World War I doughboy
at the Missoula County Courthouse was seen fanning himself with his helmet. The previous
standard of 105 was reached five times, a couple of them before the official thermometer was
moved from a downtown bank building to the comparatively cooler climes near the runway at
Missoula International Airport.
The first 18 days of July reached 90 degrees or higher, as did the final 12. The first streak equals
a record set in 1960. The second ranks fourth.
Six daily heat records: on July 5, 6, 14, 15, 18 and 29.
The heat, of course, came riding tandem with extremely dry conditions. Smith, confident that no
rain (or snow, for that matter) would fall after a midafternoon conversation, said Missoula would
finish July with just 0.03 of an inch of precipitation.