HOUSTON — In the words of George Jones: "it's hotter than a $2.00 pisotol" outside. The late country music star may not have needed a rockin' chair but one sure would be nice for many of us to take a break on -- especially if it's parked under a tree in the shade.
For long-time Houstonians, the Summer of 1980 often sticks out like piece of pepper in a salt shaker. It was a blistering Summer that year with as many as 20 record highs being set in the months of June, July, August and September. It was brutal -- even by Houston standards. It was the hottest July on record that year.
The bench mark for my generation, having growing up in Houston, is the Summer of 2011. While not as many records were set in the months mentioned above (18 instead of 20), there's an eye-popping stat that is concealed in the records: every single day in the month of August, with the exception of one, reached or exceeded 100°F. It was by far the hottest month ever recorded in Houston at 90.4 degrees. Second place is a distant 87.7 set the year prior.
The bottom line: August can be brutal.
While I see no indications that August will challenge the superlatives of Augusts' past, it's still expected to be a long, long month of mid to upper 90s and the occasional 100°F reading.
So when does it start to cool off around this joint?
Well August isn't the month. Every once in a blue moon we can see a strong cold front work its way deep inside the Lone Star State. Even then that normally wouldn't happen until the middle or latter part of the month. Looking back at the records, I see some eye-popping "cold" temperatures in the low to mid 50s but all four of the 50-degree reading records were recorded in the year 1891 --- which leads me to believe it was a one-time, freak incident.
The last time Houston saw noticeably cooler Autumn air in the month of August was likely back in 2004 when overnight lows dropped to near 60 degrees in Houston with upper 50s in the suburbs.
The average high temperature from August 1st through August 20th is 95 degrees. That's as hot as the average ever gets over the year. On August 21st, the decline in average temperatures begins and we lose about 1 degree on the average high about once a week. Our average highs will bottom out at 63 degrees the week of Christmas.
We're more than half way through the summer as of this entry. Just hang in there and we'll see our first big cool down of the season before you know it. Former Chief Meteorologist, Dr. Neil Frank, used to always say that the average day for the first big cold front was September 20th. That's 53 days from now.
Mark your calendars.
