Here are some stats and maps regarding the unusually cold July that is happening over a large portion of the U.S., especially the Northeast quadrant (yes, it's been unusually hot in the SW, see below). Note: Since I am on vacation at the end of the month, I will not be able to update these but AccuWeather.com will be running news articles about how cool July was in these areas, come the first week in August.

First, some stats. 1,044 daily record low temperatures have been broken this month nationwide according to NCDC -- count record "low highs" and the number increases to 2,925, surely to pass 3,000 before the end of the month. Some thoughts on the 'low highs" below.

July record lows 2009
© WeatherMatrix.AccuWeather.com

The period of July 17-20 was the worst, with over 1,600 stations breaking records. It's worth noting that these stats include all records across the nation. Of the record lows, through July 20th (thanks to William Schmitz @ SERCC, check out their Twitter Feed), this was the regional breakdown:

Nationwide: 966
Southeast (AL/GA/FL/NC/SC/VA): 248
Northeast (MD/DE/PA/NJ/NY/CT/RI/MA/NH/VT/ME): 193

Next, a map of the Departure from Average temperatures so far in July (yes, we have one week left). Yes, that's a "-10.0" in Pennsylvania - double digit deficits over a month are rare indeed. Note that there are no positive numbers.

(Click to view Graphic)

Even if you zoom out to the U.S. you'll see the majority of stations are reporting departures below normal thus far -- only Arizona, New Mexico and Texas have all stations reporting above normal.

The lowest temperatures of the month are also impressive, with 50s in every state and 40s in most, some 30s. Normally temperatures are peaking in July.

(Click to view graphic)

And finally I'll repeat this map which shows the lack of 85-degree days in the Northeast through July 20th. Note that the Northern Plains are not immune from the chilly weather either; Mark Vogan says that Minneapolis hasn't failed to hit 90 in the last 15 years. (Mark has some other good stats too).
July record lows US 2009 days over 85
© AccuWeather

I was especially impressed by the latter stat and I think it speaks more to the cool summer people have been experiencing - more people are out and about during the peak of the day than they are early in the morning, so they see that the temperatures in the middle of the afternoon are much lower than they should be this time of year. For perception, this may be even more important than morning lows.