by Barney Leach
August rainfall was 2.98 inches above normal at 5.41 inches with no measurable rain for a three-week period from August 2 through August 23. We had five days with measureable rainfall with a greatest one-day total of 2.43 inches on August 23 which is normal for August. Hurricane Harvey gave us three of our five day with measureable rainfall with a total of 1.77 inches. Our total rainfall for the year now stands at 35.23 inches. Normal rainfall through August is 27.61 inches.
August temperatures were somewhat above normal with our hottest day at 105 degrees on August 19. There were 14 triple-digit temperature days for the month with several days in the mid to upper 90’s. We look for cooler temperatures ahead as the hottest three months of the year are behind us. We had a total of 25 triple-digit temperature days for the 62-day July/August period which will give us our hottest summer since 2011.
2017 RAINFALL BY MONTH IN INCHES
Month Rainfall (inches) Normal Departure
January 5.75 3.62 +2.13
February 3.25 3.36 -0.11
March 4.25 4.33 -0.08
April 5.06 3.30 +1.76
May 4.82 4.59 +0.23
June 4.16 4.03 +0.13
July 2.53 1.95 +0.58
August 5.41 2.43 +2.98
September 0 0 0
October 0 0 0
November 0 0 0
Totals 35.23 27.61 +7.62
LOOKING AHEAD TO SEPTEMBER: September is our fourth hottest month of the year and normally brings cooler temperatures. However, over the past 23 years, September has produced our hottest day of the year on two occasions. Our normal rainfall for September is 3.03 inches.
The above rainfall and temperature data was recorded by Barney Leach, former volunteer co-op weather observer for the National Weather Service and former weather volunteer for Channel 8 in Dallas, Channel 10 in Waco, and radio station KNES in Fairfield.
