The Upper Peninsula, the entire state of Michigan, and the Midwest in general have seen some of the lowest temperatures on record this summer. In fact, preliminary data from the National Weather Service puts July as the coldest on record for the nine-state Midwest region.

Several Michigan cities set records for the lowest average temperature in July, including Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Gaylord, Saginaw, Flint, Benton Harbor, and Houghton Lake.

All sites in the northern lower and Eastern Upper Peninsula that are measured by the National Weather Service office in Gaylord experienced one of the top five coldest Julys on record. Alpena tied for the fourth coldest July since 1917 at an average temperature of 63 degrees, Sault Ste. Marie saw the fifth coolest since 1888 with an average temperature of 60.3, and Traverse City had its third coldest July since 1896 at 64.1 degrees.

It was the coldest July on record for Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa; the second coldest on record for Michigan, Kentucky, Ohio, and Wisconsin; the third coldest in Minnesota, and the fourth coldest on record for Missouri. Records for the region date back 114 years.

According to Mike Timlin, regional climatologist with the National Weather Service office in Gaylord, Michigan has experienced an unusually cool July, though he said the amount of rainfall in the region is actually pretty low when compared to averages.

"It's historic," Mr. Timlin said of July's temperatures. "Almost every day during the month was below normal. We've seen a lot of 50-degree temperatures, that's usually more normal in October. It was pretty remarkable."

On July 18 alone, low temperature records were set in Flint, Saginaw, Gaylord, Cadillac, Pellston, Houghton Lake, Grand Rapids, and Lansing.

Three temperature records were actually set at the Roscommon County Airport in Houghton Lake during July. On July 2, the airport saw a record low maximum temperature of 62, beating the former record of 63 set in 1929. The same place saw a record low temperature of 36 on July 13, which tied the old record set in 1940. A record low maximum temperature of 59 was again set in Houghton Lake on July 18. The day's former record of 65, a full six degrees warmer, was set in 2000.

Mr. Timlin said these temperatures were largely caused by cool air coming from northern Canada and Alaska, which, he said, left areas of the northern state and Yukon Territory in Canada with unusually warm temperatures in excess of 70 degrees, and forced a "feed" of cool air into the upper Midwest.

With forecasts showing temperatures in the mid to upper 70s for this week and forecasts predicting temperatures in the low 90s south of the Mackinac Bridge, Mr. Timlin said warmer days may be ahead for the region.

"It looks like a much warmer pattern is coming," he said.

This may be interpreted as good news for area business owners, many of whom attribute good weather with high temperatures and little rainfall to successful business in the Straits area, the economy of which depends largely on summer tourists. (See related story, this page.)