--- title: July 4, 1776 - An Unseasonably Mild Day in Philadelphia | WeatherBug | WeatherBug description: U.S. Independence Day, smack dab in the middle of summer, is often a hot day for most Americans. In 1776, it wasn't too bad. canonical: https://www.weatherbug.com/news/July-4,-1776-An-Unseasonably-Mild-Day-in-Philade og:title: July 4, 1776 - An Unseasonably Mild Day in Philadelphia | WeatherBug | WeatherBug og:description: U.S. Independence Day, smack dab in the middle of summer, is often a hot day for most Americans. In 1776, it wasn't too bad. og:url: https://www.weatherbug.com/news/July-4,-1776-An-Unseasonably-Mild-Day-in-Philade og:site_name: WeatherBug og:locale: en_US og:image: https://cms-assets-con.cdn.weatherbug.net/assets/contentitems/7a/7a1644c7-49cb-4eb5-a31e-1573fea75e73/52e0ce98-d40a-4283-82d1-d0fe816ebf4b/e2b35f90-3794-41d3-853a-6f8d2a283a3d.jpg og:image:width: 800 og:image:height: 600 og:image:alt: John Trumbull's painting, Declaration of Independence. The original hangs in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. (Wikipedia) og:type: article article:published_time: 2025-07-04T09:37:25Z article:modified_time: 2025-07-04T09:37:25Z article:author: By WeatherBug Meteorologists article:tag: history article:tag: holiday twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: July 4, 1776 - An Unseasonably Mild Day in Philadelphia | WeatherBug twitter:description: U.S. Independence Day, smack dab in the middle of summer, is often a hot day for most Americans. In 1776, it wasn't too bad. twitter:image: https://cms-assets-con.cdn.weatherbug.net/assets/contentitems/7a/7a1644c7-49cb-4eb5-a31e-1573fea75e73/52e0ce98-d40a-4283-82d1-d0fe816ebf4b/e2b35f90-3794-41d3-853a-6f8d2a283a3d.jpg --- [](/) [Back to forecast](/) # July 4, 1776 - An Unseasonably Mild Day in Philadelphia > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with WeatherBug. 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Many people head to the beach, mountains, pools and lakes to cool off and spend time cooking hamburger and hot dogs on the grill. What you might not realize is that July 4, 1776, was an unseasonably mild mid-summer day in usually hot and humid Philadelphia. Thomas Jefferson, one of the country's founding fathers and its third president, kept an extensive weather journal throughout his life. In his journal entry for July 4, 1776, he observed a 68-degree temperature at 6 a.m., 72-degree reading at 9 a.m. and a 76-degree reading at 1 p.m. Another Philadelphian, Phineas Pemberton recorded similar temperatures as well as increasing afternoon clouds, a decreasing barometric pressure and a wind shift from the north to the southwest on that famous day. Compared to modern temperature records, the 1776 high temperature of about 76 degrees is 9 degrees cooler than the 85 degree normal the city of Brotherly Love experiences. So when you think to colonial days, remember that our founding fathers had a nice day, weather wise, to declare the nation's independence. _Image:_ John Trumbull's painting, Declaration of Independence. The original hangs in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. (Wikipedia) We use technologies, such as cookies, to analyze your use (i.e., pages visited), to customize content, for our internal analytics purposes and for security and other purposes. By continuing to use this website, you agree to this usage. Please review our [privacy policy](/legal/privacy) for more details as well as for information on how to contact us to object to these activities. [Ad Choices](/legal/privacy#digitaladvertisingandyourchoices) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://www.weatherbug.com/news/July-4,-1776-An-Unseasonably-Mild-Day-in-Philade"},"headline":"July 4, 1776 - An Unseasonably Mild Day in Philadelphia","description":"U.S. Independence Day, smack dab in the middle of summer, is often a hot day for most Americans. In 1776, it wasn't too bad.","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://cms-assets-con.cdn.weatherbug.net/assets/contentitems/7a/7a1644c7-49cb-4eb5-a31e-1573fea75e73/52e0ce98-d40a-4283-82d1-d0fe816ebf4b/e2b35f90-3794-41d3-853a-6f8d2a283a3d.jpg","caption":"John Trumbull's painting, Declaration of Independence. The original hangs in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. 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In his journal entry for July 4, 1776, he observed a 68-degree temperature at 6 a.m., 72-degree reading at 9 a.m. and a 76-degree reading at 1 p.m. Another Philadelphian, Phineas Pemberton recorded similar temperatures as well as increasing afternoon clouds, a decreasing barometric pressure and a wind shift from the north to the southwest on that famous day. Compared to modern temperature records, the 1776 high temperature of about 76 degrees is 9 degrees cooler than the 85 degree normal the city of Brotherly Love experiences. So when you think to colonial days, remember that our founding fathers had a nice day, weather wise, to declare the nation's independence. Image: John Trumbull's painting, Declaration of Independence. The original hangs in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. 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