Texas Summer - 2014

[gboudx]

It was a good night in McKinney with 2.01 inches of rain and a pleasent 71' this morning. If Summers could be like this every year, I'd be a happy man.

That is really good news! Denton, Collin, Northeastern Dallas, Rockwall counties have picked up anywhere between 1-3 inches of rain the past 24 hours. Nearby, once again DFW officially recorded a whopping trace. It has been an extremely unlikely location for rainfall as areas all around it have picked up quite a bit the past 60-90 days. According to the AHPS rainfall total for that span, DFW airport is in a small bubble with around 10" while most areas around in all directions are closer to 15-20 which is closer to the average than the 10 inch deficit officially.

Steve McCauley had posted this graphic last week which shows what you mentioned. Note this is accumulated rainfall since Oct 2013.

[texas1836]

It was a good night in McKinney with 2.01 inches of rain and a pleasent 71' this morning. If Summers could be like this every year, I'd be a happy man.

That is really good news! Denton, Collin, Northeastern Dallas, Rockwall counties have picked up anywhere between 1-3 inches of rain the past 24 hours. Nearby, once again DFW officially recorded a whopping trace. It has been an extremely unlikely location for rainfall as areas all around it have picked up quite a bit the past 60-90 days. According to the AHPS rainfall total for that span, DFW airport is in a small bubble with around 10" while most areas around in all directions are closer to 15-20 which is closer to the average than the 10 inch deficit officially.

The current years's total rain fall shows 22.29 inches. I have a difficult time with DFWs readings, being it's another county away. That's why I've invested in my own weather center (DWC).

[gboudx]

Counting yesterday's rainfall, my slice of Rockwall county got 2.4" the past 2 days. Obviously most of that falling extremely early this morning, waking me and making me very tired and grumpy right now.

I don't know how much this rain will actually help increase the area lake levels, but at the very least it should keep them from decreasing like they normally do during the Summer.

[weatherdude1108]

Raining lightly at the office. I think it's evaporating more than it is making it to the ground. Ah well.

[Ralph's Weather]

Still 75 and showers here, prob have gotten 3+ inches today.

[Ntxw]

DFW's high today was 80 degrees early in the morning. During the day it has continued to fall to about 74 now in the late afternoon on the last day of July. Yet another sub 80 mid afternoon high. It feels, smells, and looks like early October out there. You can literally count the number of days on your hands like this the past 15-20 years for DFW (during the summer) on days like this and we have literally just as many this July alone in what will be the coolest July in at least a decade. What an incredibly memorable summer in terms of temperatures here.

August begins tomorrow, the sun will set in the Arctic and we are 31 days away from meteorological fall. The end is near for summer.

[Ntxw]

Fun snippet out of FW this afternoon. And indeed the Euro has been hinting at several days, the ridge becoming obsolete even in the west as much of the continent cools.


***

MEDIUM RANGE GUIDANCE IS IN GOOD AGREEMENT WITH A WEAKNESS IN THE
UPPER HEIGHTS DEVELOPING AND LINGERING ACROSS NORTH TEXAS FROM
THURSDAY INTO NEXT WEEKEND. THIS IN COMBINATION WITH A GRADUALLY
WEAKENING WESTERN U.S. RIDGE SHOULD ALLOW FOR INCREASING RAIN
CHANCES TOWARD THE LATTER PART OF NEXT WEEK AS NORTHWEST FLOW
PERSISTS. THE ECMWF CONTINUES TO ADVERTISE YET ANOTHER FRONT
MOVING INTO THE AREA DURING THIS TIME. THIS PATTERN RESEMBLES
SOMETHING THAT WE USUALLY SEE TOWARD THE END OF SUMMER WHEN A
STRONG UPPER RIDGE FINALLY BREAKS DOWN. WE WILL HAVE TO WAIT AND
SEE HOW IT PLAYS OUT THROUGH MIDDLE AUGUST BUT AT LEAST FOR NOW IT
APPEARS THAT TEMPERATURES WILL REMAIN IN CHECK WITH MORE RAIN
CHANCES ON THE HORIZON.

[somethingfunny]

For once, I didn't get missed here in South Garland - 1.6" fell in my backyard! As opposed to most of Dallas County's rain which flows directly to Houston, my rainfall flows into Duck Creek and ends up in Lake Ray Hubbard.

DFW Airport got missed again though, and continues recording one of its' driest years on record, like in that map Steve McCauley posted.

Judging by this map of North Texas watersheds though...should we actually be all that bothered if DFW Airport keeps missing out on all of the rain? I can't fully figure it out from the map but it looks like none of the rain that falls on DFW Airport property ends up in Lake Grapevine or any of our other lakes..... if we're going to have to have a bulls-eye of drought in our region, the best place for it is over the Lake Livingston watershed. Y'all get those daily Gulf Breeze showers and storms so it evens out for ya...Sorry, Southeast Texans.

Hooray for upper 60s in July & August, and hallelujah for heavy rainfalls in Denton and Collin Counties especially!

[Ntxw]

For once, I didn't get missed here in South Garland - 1.6" fell in my backyard! As opposed to most of Dallas County's rain which flows directly to Houston, my rainfall flows into Duck Creek and ends up in Lake Ray Hubbard.

DFW Airport got missed again though, and continues recording one of its' driest years on record, like in that map Steve McCauley posted.

I don't believe a singular location should determine the fate of everyone. Most of North Texas is near or even above average as per the map below. DFW and a strip of Tarrant county is the low area. Average for most areas is between 20-25 inches to date. It certainly doesn't look like it's been one of the driest years if most just looks outside, vegetation is quite lush even for a standard summer nonetheless a dry one. The rains have been effective just not at the official recording site.

And the map you posted on the watershed proves that the rain has fallen most where the important lakes have been for the urban areas. The NTWMD and Tarrant regional district big lakes are all in good spots.

[somethingfunny]

I went ahead and saved a bunch of maps from http://water.weather.gov/precip/ (an awesome resource)

July 1-31 Observed Precipitation

2014 YTD Observed Precipitation

Water Year-to-Date (Oct.1-Jul.31) Observed Precipitation

July 1-31 Percent of Normal Precipitation

2014 YTD Percent of Normal Precipitation

Water Year-to-Date (Oct.1-Jul.31) Percent of Normal Precipitation

[somethingfunny]

However.... even the bullseye over Sanger is still considered to be in D2 conditions, although the 5" they received on July 31 isn't factored into this week's Drought Monitor map.



Seeing Southeast Texas is completely out of the drought now makes me feel better about rooting against rainfall over the Lake Livingston watershed.

This state has really made some massive gains on the Drought. We still have a long way to go, but if this pattern can keep it up for the next month and then we get a decent homebrewed tropical storm or two out of the Gulf of Mexico and then El Nino finally kicks in.... we might finally be home free.

I know, getting a homebrew tropical storm to hit Texas seems more difficult than pulling teeth lately, but I think this season will be more conducive to such a storm than most seasons are.

[Ntxw]

On the note of temperature departures, July came in at -0.6F for Austin, +0.3F for San Antonio, -1.5F for DFW (this is the coolest matched by 2004), and Houston at -0.7F.

[TeamPlayersBlue]

3.52" in the last 24 hours here in Missouri City/Sugar Land. I wasnt awake long in the middle of the night to hear the rain but it was absolutely dumping. Storms werent moving very quickly. I went back to sleep quickly but woke up with a shock on my weather tablet

[Rgv20]

My drive trough Laredo last night....Its a bit hard to see but the time is 9:27PM and my car thermometer reads 104!!

[texas1836]

My drive trough Laredo last night....Its a bit hard to see but the time is 9:27PM and my car thermometer reads 104!!

I guess we’re spoiled here in North Texas. The rest of Texas is still feeling Summer.

[ravyrn]

It is 6pm on the first day of August and the temp is currently 73. I'm pretty sure that's the high for today. Likely to be a record low max.

[Ptarmigan]

It was a good night in McKinney with 2.01 inches of rain and a pleasent 71' this morning. If Summers could be like this every year, I'd be a happy man.

That is really good news! Denton, Collin, Northeastern Dallas, Rockwall counties have picked up anywhere between 1-3 inches of rain the past 24 hours. Nearby, once again DFW officially recorded a whopping trace. It has been an extremely unlikely location for rainfall as areas all around it have picked up quite a bit the past 60-90 days. According to the AHPS rainfall total for that span, DFW airport is in a small bubble with around 10" while most areas around in all directions are closer to 15-20 which is closer to the average than the 10 inch deficit officially.

Steve McCauley had posted this graphic last week which shows what you mentioned. Note this is accumulated rainfall since Oct 2013.

I have always wondered why that happens.

[gpsnowman]

I am sitting comfortably outside drinking a Heineken after a 16 hour workday, feeling the "cool" 74 degree breeze on August first. Refreshing as possible for this time of year. To steal a line from the old Old Milwaukee commercials, "You know, it just doesn't get any better than this."

[Ntxw]

Some interesting things in the weather world. Beware of warm ups and long range modelling. Super Typhoon Halong could impact Japan as it goes poleward. This will likely put a halt to any kind of "heat wave" if there is one, and there is also a conveyor belt of activity from the EPAC to CPAC possibly crossing over the WPAC. All of this effects the trough/ridge configuration in the Pacific which in turn reflects over North America.

It's neat to see how weather elsewhere can have big impacts to where we live. Can't always base a forecast on what is immediate and just continue it, always a good tool to utilize.

[somethingfunny]

I'm curious about Genevieve and Julio as they recurve - both look like massive extratropical systems along with Halong, but doing their thing nearer to the Date Line may alter the familiar trajectories of our troughs, perhaps dislodging that Gulf of Alaska ridge somewhat.