Sweltering, scorching, hot-hot-hot, baking, muggy, oppressive, burning, unbearable, ridiculous, boiling, call it what you want, officially it's called record-setting heat.
For the 20th time since May 19, the official Austin thermometer at Camp Mabry hit 100 or above, making it the longest May-to-June streak of triple digits in the city's weather history. Temperature records dating back to 1898 previously showed 1925 as the year of record for 18 May to June 100 degree days.
Here's a look back at the actual air temperature data on those days:
May 20 -- 101
May 23 -- 100
June 1 -- 100
June 2 -- 101
June 3 -- 100
June 7 -- 100
June 8 -- 100
June 9 -- 101
June 10 -- 102
June 11 -- 101
June 15 -- 101
June 16 -- 101
June 17 -- 101
June 18 -- 103
June 19 -- 101
June 22 -- 100
June 23 -- 100
June 25 -- 100
June 26 -- 100
June 27 -- 101
Of those, 15 daily high temperature records have been set. Ten of those exceeded old daily records while five simply tied. That's not all, as it stands now, the Camp Mabry average high of 99.6 makes this the hottest running month of June ever recorded in the city. Just behind that at 99.4 degrees are June 1925 and 1956.
June 2008 currently sits in 10th place of overall hottest average maximum temperatures of any month of any year in history. The only hotter month in recent memory came in August 2006 with an average high of 100.7.
Austin averages 11.4 triple-digit days per year, with a record 69 in 1925. The earliest usually arrive around July 11 and the latest typically around August 20, but they've come as early as May 4 and appeared as late as October 2.
At Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, the thermometer has touched 100 or greater four times during June with the hottest at 101 on June 19. Between May and June, eight daily high temp records have been set. Four days exceed the old record while another four tied for the top honor.
Folks just north of the capital city in Waco have been spared a bit of the sweltering, having not yet endured any triple-digit days this year. The hottest in Waco was 99 on June 18, 23 and 27.
Climatology experts and many meteorologists suggest the La Nina phenomenon of cooler-than-normal temperatures of the equatorial water of the Pacific Ocean that developed late last summer is responsible for our current hot and dry weather. Sea surface temperatures in that part of the ocean remain below average according to the latest data from the Climate Prediction Center, though a return to “neutral” or near normal status is expected soon. The next El Nino – a period typified by wetter and cooler weather – is forecast to develop by 2009.
