In Austin, the current heat wave seems destined to stay at least through the end of the summer. Experts say it is the expected consequence of decades of fossil fuel emissions pouring into the atmosphere.Īs in years past, the heat and drought have brought wildfires, crop failures and exposed the inadequacy of government policies surrounding everything from breaks for construction workers and water management to air conditioning in state prisons. The heat is the result of what the state climatologist of Texas referred to as a “ climate feedback loop” in which hot weather creates the conditions to produce even more hot weather, locking in a pattern of heat and drought that becomes stubborn and fierce.

don't really pay attention to the low temperatures.” The role of climate change “At night we generally have been hovering around the upper 70s and sometimes even low 80s,” he said. Gale says a combination of searing hot days, often topping out at 105 degrees or higher, and nights that refused to cool off have brought the summer within reach of becoming our hottest. That means we’d still need 35 more to catch up with the 90 recorded in 2011.īut the fact that the summer went on to break so many high temperature records after such a slow start speaks to the ferocity of the heat once it started. 15, the National Weather Service station at Camp Mabry had recorded 55 triple digit days. In contrast, Austinites enjoyed cool, wet weather and a receding drought until close to mid-June this year.īecause it started later, this year may lag 2011 in the raw number of triple digit days. In 2011, triple digit days began in May and drought was already well established by June. There may still be some metrics by which 2011 remains “hotter” than 2023.įor one thing, the heat started later this year. That year has become synonymous with extreme heat and drought for many who lived here at the time. While this summer has been brutally hot in Austin - and much of Texas - the notion that it will end up hotter than 2011 may still be hard to swallow for some.

Gale added that he can’t say with “100% certainty” that the average heat record will be surpassed, but that a major mid-August cold front does not appear likely. “Unless we get some major cold front for the rest of the month, I'd expect it to stay there.” “It has overtaken the number one spot,” said Brandon Gale, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service based in New Braunfels. With just two weeks left, meteorologists say it is likely this summer will surpass 2011 as Austin’s hottest ever. That’s about a third of a degree hotter than the average summer temperature was in 2011, Austin’s previous hottest summer on record. 15, the average temperature at Austin’s Camp Mabry weather station during June, July and August was 89.8 degrees Fahrenheit. That makes this streak feel less like a new record and more like a new paradigm.īut it is not the only major heat record to fall hard.Īs of Aug. The old record for a triple-digit streak was 27 days, set in 2011.

Wednesday is the 40th day in a row of triple-digit heat in Austin.

Austin weather august