Weekly Weather: A fall-like weekend ahead
Published on October 15th, 2012
Written by: Eric Berger
Good morning and welcome to my weekly weather report on the immediate past, present and future of weather in the Bayou City.
PAST
I’m calling it: Houston’s done with 90-degree days this year. Houston has had a 90-degree day as late in the year as Oct 29, but we’re going to see a slight cool down today, and a bigger one later this week.
So we’re probably done.
By my count, then, Houston has had 109 days with temperatures of at least 90 degrees during the year. Here’s a breakdown by month, from the National Weather Service’s climate pages:
May: 16
June: 25
July: 22
August: 30
September: 15
October: 1
How does that stack up climatologically?
For Houston’s period of record, 1889-2011, the normal number of 90-degree days per year in Houston was 93. However, the last time Houston failed to reach 93 days was back in 1992 with only 86 days of 90 degrees or higher. So “normal” may not be that good of a guide.
If you shorten the period to match the 30-year climate normals, 1981-2010, the normal number of 90 degree days per year is 107 days.
(This increase is likely due, in part, to the 1969 change in official station location from Hobby Airport to Bush Intercontinental Airport. During the period of 1981 to 2010 there were 91 days of 90 degrees or higher at Hobby Airport. Being further from the Gulf, Bush is generally a bit warmer during the day and cooler at night).
So this year had a fairly “normal” number of 90-degree days.
Compare it, for example, to the all-time record set last year when there were 142 days of 90 degrees or higher.
Now careful readers may recall that we had a competition at the outset of summer to guess the number of 90-degree days. And yes, one reader, wurmy,correctly guessed 109. I’ll contact him or her about the prize, two great books.
Anyway, let’s do the numbers for last week.
| Date | High T | Low T | Average | Departure | Rainfall |
| Monday | 72 | 53 | 63 | -11 | Trace |
| Tuesday | 84 | 57 | 71 | -2 | 0.00 |
| Wednesday | 90 | 65 | 78 | +5 | 0.00 |
| Thursday | 88 | 70 | 79 | +6 | 0.00 |
| Friday | 89 | 70 | 80 | +8 | 0.00 |
| Saturday | 89 | 68 | 79 | +7 | 0.00 |
| Sunday | 84 | 72 | 78 | +6 | 0.37 |
| Average | 85.1 | 65.0 | 75.4 | +2.7 | 0.37 |
That sure was a sticky end of the week, with overnight lows averaging 70 degrees for the last four days. That’s a typical low for mid-September, not mid-October.
