By Barney Leach
August produced our second rain-free calendar month over the past twenty-five years. Our previous calendar month without measurable rainfall was August of 2000. Some areas did receive rain in August, but it missed my rain gauge.
We are only eight days away from surpassing our 2011 sixty-two-day drought and there is no rain in the forecast for the next seven days. It looks as if we may have a record dry summer following a record wet spring.
Our total rainfall through August stands at 39.61 inches. With our record wet spring, we are only 2.80 inches away from having normal rainfall for the entire year. Normal rainfall for the remainder of the year (September through December) is 16.20 inches.
Temperature-wise, August temperatures were fairly normal with highs mostly in the mid to upper nineties. We had a high temperature of 98 degrees on August 13 and 26. Our low temperature for the month was 75 degrees on five different days.
RAINFALL BY MONTH IN INCHES
Month Rainfall Normal Departure Month Rainfall Normal Departure
Jan 3.79 3.00 +0.79 Jul 0.59 2.13 -1.54
Feb 2.28 2.96 -0.68 Aug 0.00 2.43 -2.43
Mar 1.53 4.43 -2.90 Sep
Apr 11.03 3.05 +7.98 Oct
May 15.38 4.67 +10.71 Nov
Jun 5.01 3.97 +1.04 Dec
Total 39.61 26.64 +12.97 Looking ahead to September: September usually ushers in cooler weather as our normally fourth hottest month of the year. However, we have had our hottest day of the year a couple of times in September over the years. September is normally our third driest month with 3.06 inches of rain.
The above rainfall and temperature data was recorded by Barney Leach, former co-op weather volunteer for the National Weather Service and former weather volunteer for Channel 8 in Dallas, Channel 10 in Waco and radio station KNES in Fairfield.
