Summer is vacation time and the weather in July, averaged across the United States, is more conducive to outdoor activities than in any other month.
Coincidentally, thunderstorm activity also peaks nationally in July, and thunderstorms bring lightning—the most frequently occurring of all hazardous weather phenomena. This country experiences 22 million lightning ground strikes annually.
Geographer Dr. George Kimble once remarked that “Swinging a metal-shafted club overhead has been the last mortal act of many a wet-weather golfer.” It’s a thought intended not just for golfers but for everyone because today’s splendid weather will coax hundreds of thousands of us outdoors—but isolated afternoon thunderstorms will be lurking as well, and their limited-coverage rainfall is less likely to drive us inside.
--By Richard Koeneman, WGN Weather Center Meteorologist
WGN-TV Chief Meteorologist Tom Skilling and the WGN Weather Center staff provide daily coverage of weather in the Chicago area.
