July 2021 so much Warmer than July 1921

Like this just past July, in 1921 July was also a dry month.

August 2nd, 1921

The paper printed a weather summary and it is interesting to compare the temperatures to the month we just finished.

Warmer in 2021

A single month-to-month comparison does not say very much about long-term trends. It is a kind of cherry-picking and trivia. But given everything else that we know, it is symptomatic nonetheless. 

It's a lot warmer now!

The difference in nighttime lows is particularly striking. It was a dry, droughty month, not cloudy and wet, with only 12 days with any kinds of clouds, and it was still a lot cooler then.

Update, Tuesday

And here's how the current paper covered it today. They focused on fun rather than anything related to our climate emergency.

Still the "fun" angle for record heat

They note that last month's record was the result of the daily record outliers in the 117 degree heatwave, but this month's was from sustained daily warmth in the 90s and warmer nights.

As a commenter noted, the National Weather Service had noted it was our hottest all-time:

[T]his was not only the warmest July on record at the Salem Airport, but also the warmest month at the Salem Airport since records began in the 1890s. The next warmest months on record were July 2015 at 73.1°F and August 2017 at 73.0°F.

The close proximity of the new second-place records in 2015 and 2017 should remind us that this record won't last long, and we will soon be "celebrating" another new record.

August 3rd, 1921

The Bitsman in the paper 100 years ago highlighted the cool nights; the loss of this, more than any record-setting daily highs, might be the real measure of our warming climate in summer.