by Barney Leach
Our summer drought ended with above normal rainfall for September. We had 3.97 inches of rain with 11 days with measureable rainfall and a greatest one-day total of 1.03 inch on September 3. Rainfall for eight of the eleven days was less than on-half inch. We had a weather oddity in September in that the National Weather Service forecast rain for every day of the month. They did back off on two days in the last week of September. Normal rainfall for September is 3.06 inches.
Our total rainfall for the year now stands at 24.06 inches. Normal through September is 30.67 inches.
Temperature-wise, September did cool down somewhat without any triple-digit temperatures. We had a high temperature of 99 degrees on September 18 and a low of 59 on September 28.
2018 RAINFALL BY MONTH IN INCHES
Month | Rainfall (inches) | Normal | Departure
January | 0.74 | 3.62 | -2.88
February | 4.58 | 3.36 | +1.22
March | 5.83 | 4.33 | +1.50
April | 1.18 | 3.30 | -2.12
May | 3.86 | 4.59 | -0.73
June | 0.78 | 4.03 | -3.25
July | 1.99 | 1.95 | +0.04
August | 1.13 | 2.43 | -1.30
September | 3.97 | 3.06 | +0.91
Totals | 24.06 | 30.67 | -6.61
LOOKING AHEAD TO OCTOBER: October is normally our wettest month of the year. Temperatures tend to cool down somewhat in October and we have had frost in the past. Normal rainfall for October is 5.30 inches.
The “2018 Old Farmer’s Almanac” calls for normal temperatures and above normal rainfall for October.
Normal rainfall values currently used were derived from averages over the twenty-year period from 1997 through 2016.
The above rainfall and temperature data was recorded by Barney Leach, former volunteer 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.
