2023 and 2022 were among the top 5 hottest summers on record. Where did 2024 stack up?
DALLAS — Meteorological summer has come to an end. Now that the calendar says September, meteorological fall has begun.
So where did this past summer rank?
Above normal heat
All summers are hot in North Texas. But some are hotter than others.
The summers of 2022 and 2023 were exceptionally hot. Both finished in the top 5 among the hottest summers on record. (Records go back to 1899).
Thankfully, this summer was not that hot, but it did finish above normal. The summer of 2024 will go into the books as the 14th hottest on record. Finishing with an average temp of 86.1 F, which is 1.7 F above normal.
100 F days
While meteorological summer has ended, we can’t give a final count of 100 F days just yet as we can still have triple digits through the month of September. However, those 100 F days do become much less likely through September.
Here’s hoping we don’t see any more!
Regardless if we do or don’t see any September 100 F days, this year will finish above normal in 100 F days. Right now, the count stands at 23, which is 3 days above the normal of 20 days for the year.
Once again, thankfully, that number is nowhere close to as high as the last couple of summers!
Below normal rainfall
About two-thirds of the way through the summer, things were looking good in the rainfall department…then August happened.
Overall the summer ended up being drier than normal with a deficit of 1.33 inches of rainfall. The total ended up being 6.63 inches for the summer.
That is good for the 54th driest on record. Nowhere close to terrible by any means, but still drier than normal.
Most of that deficit came during the month of August, where only .41 inches of rainfall fell and was 1.77 inches below normal.
June saw 3.67 inches of rain, which was only below normal by 0.03 inches. And July saw 2.55 inches of rain, which was 0.47 inches above normal.