There was a time when it seemed like summer could have gone differently: A wet spring and relatively mild June had us thinking maybe this year wouldn’t be so bad.
Boy, that didn’t last long.
“Yeah, we dried out pretty quick and soil started to dry out,” Brett Williams, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said. “So we had a very, very warm and very, very dry ... July and things got really bad in August.”
Williams said this September is solidly on track to be the hottest ever in Austin. This month has already set a new record when it comes to triple-digit days: We’ve had 17, so far. Before this year, September 2011 held the record with 14 triple-digit days.
Altogether, the city’s had 55 triple-digit days this year.
“We’re currently sitting in fifth overall all time for 100-degree days in Austin,” Williams said.
Long-term forecasts predict above average heat into December.
Climatologists also expect the city to keep getting hotter year-over-year thanks to climate change. One report out this summer forecasted that the feels-like temperatures could start to surpass 127 degrees by the mid part of the century if nothing is done to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
