In Sweltering Year, Central Texas Broils - Houston Chronicle

[hatrack]

DALLAS — In a searing Texas summer marked by drought and 100-degree days, residents of Dallas, Fort Worth and San Antonio may have the most to complain about. The cities are sweating out their hottest year on record so far, and the state is in the running for its most sweltering year on record, weather officials said.

This is going to be one of the top 10 warmest summers for the state," said Victor Murphy, a climate expert at the National Weather Service's regional headquarters in Fort Worth. "And the areas that have been the worst so far will probably stay the worst, basically South Central and North Central Texas."

The hottest summers on record for Texas were in 1980 and 1998, when temperatures averaged 84.3 degrees for June, July and August. So far this year, the state is averaging 82.3 degrees, but that doesn't include August — typically the summer's hottest month. The brunt of the heat and drought has affected a large swath of Central Texas, from Laredo to Wichita Falls and San Angelo to Paris.

Temperatures in big cities like San Antonio and Dallas-Fort Worth have been even higher, Murphy said. "Any metropolitan area can have temperatures that are one or two degrees higher than the surrounding rural areas because of all that steel and concrete," meteorologist Gary Woodallsaid. In the Dallas-Fort Worth region, 13 out of the first 14 days of August were 100-plus scorchers, and no relief is in sight, Woodall said.

EDIT

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/4119763.html

[ceile]

1. Going to be 103 today in Austin

My electric bill has nearly doubled in the last 6 wks.

[Redbear]

5. 104 in Waco today.

No relief in sight.

[Captain Hilts]

2. Should folks start to think about working at night, sleeping in the day?

[skids]

3. I notice NM is getting a good dousing...

...Lots of flood warnings/watches during this last wave.

[NMDemDist2]

4. yup it's been raining for two weeks. we're pretty saturated

but the drought map is looking a LOT better than it did in June and they are releasing more irrigation water to the farmers now that the reservoirs are filling back up with run off

[T Wolf]

6. One benefit of global warming.....

Texas and other red states get cooked and then submerged.

As a variation of a popular Texas bumper sticker from back in the day,

"Turn up your air conditioning and bake a Texan."

[damntexdem]

7. Aw, we can take it!

and take it, and take it, and take it, and take it, and take it, and take it, and take it, and take it, and take it, and take it, and take it, and take it, ...

Now, where did I put down my Gatorade?