Th8is
You probably noticed this when you received your latest power bill, but your air conditioner had a busy month.
According to the National Weather Service Lakeland’s average daily temperature of 85.5 degrees F. was the highest since 1915.
Bartow was 4th warmest since 1892 and Winter Haven was 7th warmest since 1941.
The Bartow temperature figures were interesting because unlike other places in the area, the other warm Julys were not recorded within the past decade or so when climate change became a greater focus. Although the warmest July occurred in 2014, the second warmest July there was in 1932 and the third warmest July was in 1969.
The figures from Wauchula were not in yet.
It was also the second driest July in Bartow.
That lack of rainfall was evident in the Upper Peace River, which officially begins in Bartow at the confluence of Saddle Creek and the Peace Creek Drainage Canal, is flowing below normal for this time of year, which is why flow at Fort Meade is lower than it is at Bartow because some of the river is swallowed into underground caverns in that stretch of the river because of historic decline in aquifer levels in this part of Florida because of heavy pumping.
The river flow can change quickly if a tropical storm arrives, such as occurred last year following Hurricane Ian when the river saw record-breaking flow that caused serious flooding downstream that caused substantial property damage.