September rainfall was only slightly above half normal with 1.61 inch all of which fell on September 28 which was the only day with measurable rainfall since August 28. Total rainfall for the year now stands at 36.84 inches. Normal rainfall through September is 29.67 inches.
September temperatures continued to run somewhat above normal with a high of 98 degrees on September 5. We did have a brief cool spell with a low of 49 degrees on September 7 but the spell did not last long. September ushered in Autumn which should produce cooler weather ahead.
Autumn can produce some surprises, however. We had our hottest and coldest day of the year for 2005 in the fall. We had a high of 104 degrees on September 26 and a low of 13 degrees on December 9, only about 2.5 months apart.
September did end the hottest summer we have had since 2011. We had 24 triple-digit temperature days for the summer with a high of 105 degrees on August 19 which was not bad compared with 66 triple-digit temperature days in the summer of 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 1.61 3.06 -1.45
October 0 0 0
November 0 0 0
Totals 36.84 30.67 +6.17
LOOKING AHEAD TO OCTOBER: October is normally our wettest month of the year with 5.3 inches of rain. Temperatures should be fairly mild as our first frost does not normally occur until mid to late November.
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.
