When New Yorkers look back on August 2008, they may recall the Beijing Olympics or the Democratic National Convention in Denver as highlights, but the month could also be remembered for something that occurred in the city: the beautiful weather.

With little rain or humidity and temperatures hovering between the mid-70s and mid-80s, local parks this month have drawn droves of sunbathers, Frisbee throwers, and workers on lunch breaks. Only once has the temperature risen to 90 degrees — on August 1 — and the city has seen no rain at all for the past two weeks. It has been a far cry from last August, when torrential downpours shut down large swaths of the subway system and Metro-North Railroad early in the month.

For residents staying in the city on weekends, the temperatures have been a welcome surprise.

A public defender, Joseph Conza, 31, who took advantage of the weather yesterday by playing pickup basketball with co-workers in Rockefeller Park during lunch break, said he was especially grateful for the temperature given the state of another climate — the economic one.

“The summer has been great,” Mr. Conza said yesterday in an interview. “Gas is more expensive and I’ve been flying less so I’ve been having a lot more barbecues with friends here and going to a lot of outdoor concerts.”

The weather has also been a boon for some who ply their trades outside.

A hot dog vendor in Lower Manhattan, Salim Nadir, 35, said he had been doing better business than usual thanks to an influx of tourists, whom he credits with 80% of his sales.

A Hula-hoop instructor and performer, Jenny McGowan, said yesterday after giving an outdoor lesson in TriBeCa that she was cutting costs by teaching in the park more often this month thanks to the “amazing” weather.

“It is better for business,” Ms. McGowan said as a nearby student twirled neon Hula-hoops around her wrists. “You don’t have to rent out studio space and it’s free publicity as well.”

According to the special projects manager for Greenmarkets, Gabrielle Langholtz, the dozens of farmers markets run by the organization have benefited from the weather.

“It’s been great for business,” Ms. Langholtz said yesterday in an interview. “Warm enough for the peaches, tomatoes, and eggplants to grow, but comfortable enough to hang out at the market.”

If global warming is occurring, New Yorkers aren’t feeling it this month, enjoying temperatures that are 1.7 degrees below the average for August. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, however, New York has been an exception in this regard, as 2008 is so far the ninth-warmest year in recorded history.

Meteorologists are attributing the unseasonably cool and dry August in the city to a cold front from Canada that has crowded out the hot, humid weather system from the Atlantic known as the Bermuda High that usually dictates the city’s summer weather.

“Definitely the weather is often hotter,” the lead meteorologist for the Weather Channel, Mark Ressler, said in an interview yesterday. “A lot of time it will be a more humid, sultry kind of temperature, up near 90 degrees or more. This year there has been bit more of a Canadian influence, which makes it more pleasant.”

According to Mr. Ressler, New York’s streak of good weather is likely to continue into September. He predicted light rain over the weekend, followed by warm, dry weather returning once again on Sunday and continuing until at least Wednesday.