Waco summer milder, maybe not normal
The specter of high heat in Waco is not disappearing with the arrival of the autumnal equinox Sunday, but this summer's 19 triple-digit days so far represent welcome relief compared to 66 last year.
While this year's 100-degree-day count and rainfall have been more moderate than last year, normal may not describe any Central Texas summer.
Matt Bishop, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Fort Worth, acknowledged this summer was markedly cooler than last summer.
"We haven't had as many 100-plus degree days," Bishop said, noting that triple-digit days often lag into September, and it does not have to hit 100 to be hot. "One-hundred degrees is an arbitrary number. It could be 98 or 00, but it just so happens not to hit that 100 mark."
Waco's hottest day of the year, 105 on Aug. 20, also fell short of last year, when the mercury hit 110 in late August. Rainfall, though sporadic, also played a part in keeping this summer relatively moderate.
July saw 1.76 inches of rain, just shy of the monthly average, and scattered showers throughout the season benefitted many of the region's agricultural producers. May's rainfall was anything but moderate, however, setting an all-time record for any month in Waco at 15.28 inches.
McLennan County AgriLife Extension agent Shane McLellan said this summer has presented an unusual mix of conditions.
"All the early rain we had really set up our livestock producers," McLellan said. "But when you have that much (grass), you'll end up with armyworms in nontypical situations."
Armyworms are caterpillar pests that can be destructive to crops and lawns, and McLellan said they seemed to thrive despite temperatures nearing 100 degrees.
"They usually thrive in cooler conditions," McLellan said. "It's just another example of how strange our weather has been."
He said Central Texas has not had consistent rainfall patterns in more than 50 years.
"It will look like you had a really good year, and then you'll find out there were long stretches of no rainfall in certain areas," he said, suggesting that the idea of a normal summer may not apply.
Lake Waco, a flood-control lake that also serves as the area's main drinking water source, spent most of the summer close to its normal elevation, a little more than 462 feet above sea level. Between October and May, the lake swung from one of its lowest levels, just above 450 feet after a two-year drought, to one of its highest, almost 483 feet amid May's record rainfall.
Bishop said the was not as brutal as years past, a reflection of the variability in Texas weather.
"Sometimes you get really bad summers, sometimes you get really good ones," Bishop said.
He also said that historically, Waco has experienced fewer than 20 days of triple-digit weather in some years, most recently 2017 and 2019, when it saw 19 and 18 days, respectively. The most extreme summers, such as 2011 with 90 days of triple-digit heat, stand out for their intensity, but they are not the norm every year, he said.
Bishop said Wacoans can rejoice in the fact that cooler weather is just around the corner.
"We have rain chances starting Monday and continuing into Wednesday, with a cold front coming through," Bishop said. "That might be the end of it," indicating that the 100-degree days could be over for the year.
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