With an official temperature archive dating back to 1872, it’s rather difficult for Baltimore to set two consecutive maximum temperature records in the month of August. However, that is exactly what happened over the previous two days as the airport reached 96° on the 18th (tying the records from 2002, 1995, and 1965), then again on the 19th as the temperature soared to 99°, exceeding the previous record of 97° from way back in 1914. Granted, these were the two lowest calendar-day Maximum Temperature extremes for the entire month of August but it’s still quite a feat with a record going back 147 years.  Today, August 20th, likely won’t even come close to the record. With a predicted high in the low 90s, the record for the date is 105° set back in 1983, a day I remember well when driving back from visiting a friend in northeast Pennsylvania.

Weather records for the Baltimore area have been kept at what is now Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI) since August 1950. Temperature records observed in downtown Baltimore extend the period back to 1872.