July’s Weather Sets Record For High Temps [AUDIO]

If it feels like every July keeps getting hotter and hotter, you're not too far off.

Spencer Platt, Getty Images

July 2013 ranks as the fifth warmest summer on record, and is the fifth entry from the past decade in the top ten list.

State climatologist Dr. David Robinson said what made July 2013 especially brutal is while the highs were bad, it was the daily lows which contributed to the ongoing oppressive heat.

"The minimum temperatures at night were the warmest we ever seen for a July."

Additionally, cloud cover and leftover humidity from a very rainy June (and July) created a lot of humidity in the atmosphere, trapping a lot of the daytime heat during the overnight hours. This prevented a chance for the air to cool down sufficiently.

This continues a trend of a extremely warm months in the past decade. Last year saw a record breaking March, 2011 had a sky high April and June. Additionally a half dozen other months within the past fifteen years were record breaking.

Robinson agreed that human involvement is partially responsible for the changes, noting that while greenhouse gasses might not be responsible for every "twist and turn" in the weather pattern, they are to blame for some of the record breaking figures.

"We're just adding to natural fluctuation, by the amount of greenhouse gasses we're putting into the atmosphere the way we're changing the earth's surface and other impacts."

In short, this is one of the 10 warmest July's across New Jersey since statewide values began to be generated in 1895. Here is the current top 10 list:

Rank Year July (average temperature)

1 1955 79.0 degrees

2 2011 78.8 degrees

3 2010 78.7 degrees

4 1999 78.4 degrees

5 2012 78.1 degrees

6 1949 77.8 degrees

7 2006 77.3 degrees

8 1994 77.1 degrees

9 1901 77.0 degrees

10 1993 76.9 degrees

The average, based on the 1981-2010 interval is 75.0 degrees.