Texas Heat: Hottest 30 days ever?

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Another day of 100 degree heat for south Texas. Temperatures in Austin have hit or exceeded 100 degrees 24 of 27 days in July.

Newsflash: It's hot in Texas in July.

Okay, no big surprise here, but as the old weather joke goes..."How hot is it?"

This may be the hottest 30 days ever in parts of Texas. Records for the hottest month ever may tumble this week in Austin, San Antonio and Del Rio Texas. The average temperature in these cities has been close to 90 degrees in July. That's not the average high temperature, that's the daily mean temperature. The daily mean is arrived at by adding the daily minimum and maximum temperatures and dividing by two.

The Texas heat this month has been the other side of the weather story that has brought cooler than average weather to Minnesota and the eastern United States. Jet stream patterns usually make it cool in one place and hot somewhere else.

So is this evidence of climate change or global warming? No. Just like the previous post about the cool northeast summer, the hottest month ever in Texas is not proof of climate change. It's weather, not climate. When you look at the longer term picture over years and decades, the record heat may fit into an overall pattern, but one month does not a climate change make.

The forecast calls for more 100 degree heat in Texas this week. Let's see if parts of Texas finish July as the hottest month ever on record. It will be interesting to see if the climate change naysayers pick up that story as a headline.

PH