the year in houston weather (2011)
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JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH APRIL MAY JUNE JULY AUGUST SEPTEMBER OCTOBER NOVEMBER DECEMBER
Note: All temperature and rainfall data reported from Bush Intercontinental Airport. Normals based on 30-year period (1981-2010) For a downloadable PDF of this graphic, go to blog.chron.com/sciguy/
CUMULATIVE PRECIPITATION in inches:
DAILY HIGHS AND LOWS with normal and record temperatures for each day:
Note: Rainfall total through 7 p.m. Friday
Daily highs
How to read the chartRecord highs
Record lows
Normal highs
Normal lows
Daily lows
Actualrainfall
Normalrainfall
Records fell like the summer rain that never came• 2011 began with an early-February Arctic blast that caused problems statewide, including school closures, rolling blackouts and less-than-ideal conditions for the Super Bowl in Arlington.
• In all, Houston had more than 60 daily temperature records tied or broken. After seeing only two 100-degree days in 2010, the city endured 46 days at or above the century mark in 2011, including most of August.
• The drought, which had been brewing since 2008, peaked in October, with nearly the entire state suffering in the “exceptional” category. Rain returned at the end of the year, but the drought is far from over.
• The cold didn’t last long, however, and soon gave way to month after month of record-high temperatures, devastating drought, and scorching wildfires.
JAY CARR : CHRONICLESources: National Weather Service, Houston/Galveston Weather Forecast Office; U.S. Department of Agriculture; Office of the State Climatologist, Texas A&M University
Record highsset or tied:89° (April 11)
92° (April 19)90° (April 22)93° (April 27)
102° (Aug. 11 and 16)101° (Aug. 6)
95° (Sept. 24)96° (Sept. 29)
84° (Nov. 20)
99° (Sept. 11)101° (Sept. 12) 100° (Sept. 14)
107° (Aug. 28 and 29)
94° (May 9)98° (May 26)95° (May 25)
Earliest 100-degree day100° (June 2)
98° (June 1 and 4)
100° (June 15 and 17)
Record high for June105° (June 5 and 6)
All-time record high (tie)109° (Aug. 27)
Highest temperaturerecorded so late in year102° (Sept.13)104° (Aug. 26)
Low of 77° on April 27 ties record for warmest low ever in April
Low of 82° on June 17, 18, 19 and 21 ties record for warmest low ever in June
With a high of 109° and a low of 81°, August 27 was the all-time hottest day in city history
59° on Sept. 7 is record low for date
Warm nights Marks indicate low temperatures that either set or tied record for the warmest low temperature for the date (36 this year, compared to 12 last year)
Biggest temperature swing (46°)On Feb. 1, the temperature dropped from a high of 70° to 24° overnight
Third-warmest
April on record,with averagetemperature
of 74.9°
Eighth-warmest
May on record,with averagetemperature
of 78.7°
Third-warmest
July on record,with averagetemperature
of 87.1°
Second-driest August
on record,with 0.09 inches
of rain
Sixth-driest Mayon record,
with 0.33 inchesof rain
Eighth-driestFebruary
on record,with 0.69 inches
of rain
Driest Aprilon record,
with 0.11 inchesof rain
WarmestAugust on
record,with averagetemperature
of 90.4°
Averagehigh of 102°
is highestever forAugust
Averagehigh of 97.4°
is highestever for
June
Averagehigh of 95.5°
is highestever for
September
Third-warmest
Septemberon record,
with averagetemperature
of 82.9°
WarmestJune on record,
with averagetemperature
of 86.2°
Arctic blast• First two weeks of February had 12 nights below freezing• Coldest night of the year (21° on Feb. 2)• Coldest high for date (34° on Feb. 3)
Normal rainfallfor year: 49.77˝
Actual rainfall: 24.57˝(25.20˝ below normal)
5.05 inches of rain in January produced the year’s only rainfall surplus, which disappeared by the end of February
Between February and June, Houston suffered through a record five consecutive months with less than an inch of rain (the previous record was two months)
With only 5.60 inches of rain falling between May and September, it was Houston’s driest summer ever
More than 12 inches of rain fell during the last three months of the year, but it was not nearly enough to make up for the dryness of the previous eight months
Five all-time driestcalendar years:19171988201119011951
17.66˝22.93˝24.57˝27.09˝27.23˝
Monthly rainfall totals,with departure from normal:
5.05˝ (+1.37˝) 0.69˝ (-2.29˝) 0.78˝ (-2.58˝) 0.11˝ (-3.49˝) 0.33˝ (-4.82˝) 0.92˝ (-4.43˝) 2.98˝ (-0.20˝) 0.09˝ (-3.67˝) 1.28˝ (-2.84˝) 3.36˝ (-2.34˝) 4.70˝ (+0.36˝) 4.28˝ (+0.54˝)
STATEWIDEDROUGHTCONDITIONSat start ofeach month
ExceptionalExtremeSevereModerate
JANUARY
HoustonSanAntonio
DallasFEBRUARY
HoustonSanAntonio
DallasMARCH
HoustonSanAntonio
DallasAPRIL
HoustonSanAntonio
DallasMAY
HoustonSanAntonio
DallasJULY
HoustonSanAntonio
DallasAUGUST
HoustonSanAntonio
DallasSEPTEMBER
HoustonSanAntonio
DallasOCTOBER
HoustonSanAntonio
DallasNOVEMBER
HoustonSanAntonio
DallasJUNE
HoustonSanAntonio
DallasDECEMBER
HoustonSanAntonio
Dallas