Monthly Weather Summary: Bone dry for most of July

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — Happy August, we made it through July! This month was marked by smoke, wildfires, and very little precipitation.

Salt Lake City only received two days of measurable moisture, and the last one was on July 4th! Since June 1st, Salt Lake City has only accumulated 0.34″ of precipitation, which means this is the thirteenth driest June 1-July 31st on record. Monsoon rains have been absent, and drought conditions continue to worsen.

Temperature overview

Temperatures were right around average across the state with most places being within a degree of seasonal norms. Salt Lake City’s average daytime high was 95.1°, putting it a little more than a degree above average. St. George was actually below average by only 0.3 degrees with an average high of 102.3° this month.

When taking daytime highs and overnight lows into account, Salt Lake averaged 82.9°, which is 2.8 degrees above average, and St. George at 86.8° which puts them right around average. The hottest temperature in Salt Lake City was 100° on the 8^th, 90^th, and 30^th, while St. George hit 110° on the 14^th.

Overall, it was a pretty seasonable July as far as temperatures are concerned, but precipitation totals are another story.

Precipitation

Precipitation this month has been rough. Salt Lake City averages just below half an inch of rain for the month, but this month we only received 0.18 inches. It only rained two days this month in Salt Lake, July 2^nd and the Fourth of July, the last 4 weeks brought no measurable rain at all.

Surprisingly, Salt Lake was one of the better performers. St. George, Logan, and Provo also average about half an inch through the month, but their July 2025 totals are abysmal, coming in 10-20x below average. St. George only had three-hundredths of an inch, Logan a measly two-hundredths, and Provo hasn’t seen a single drop!

Provo is actually on a 73-day dry streak and counting, making it by far the longest dry streak recorded there, beating the old record of 60 days in a row set back in 2014. Provo also broke their record for their driest July ever. A couple other places, like Milford, also broke the record for the driest July. Many places came in the top three, like Ogden where only one-hundredth of an inch fell, tying it with the second driest July.

The endless dry air on top of the already dry vegetation has made for dangerous fire conditions through the area, marking the month with thick smoke and raging wildfires.

Wildfires and smoke

Several fires were already ongoing at the start of the month, including the Forsyth Fire in Washington County, but two new fires flared up this month.

The first major wildfire was the Deer Creek Fire near Moab, which blew up to 17,724 acres since being discovered on July 10^th. This fire prompted evacuations, but the highlight was the fire tornado it spawned that got an EF-2 rating – one of the strongest tornadoes we’ve seen in the Beehive State! Luckily, evacuations were already in place, and no one was seriously injured.

The second fire to be discovered was the Monroe Canyon Fire just three days later. The Monroe Fire is now the largest fire of the year and as of July 31 was at 48,000 acres and growing quickly.

Just to the south of the state line were two major fires on the north rim of the Grand Canyon, the Dragon Bravo and White Sage Fires, which relentlessly pumped smoke through eastern Utah, especially in the last few weeks of the month.

Dry air and elevated fire conditions persist as we kick off the new month, hopefully August helps bring us back on track with a little more monsoon moisture, we’ll see what it has in store!