After one of the hottest Junes on record, central Texas continues to experience dangerously high temperatures and little rainfall.
Both Austin and San Antonio reported that last month was the hottest June on record, according to Meteorologist Mary Wasson, Spectrum News 1. Both cities experienced well over a dozen triple-digit days, with Austin-Mabry recording 20, Austin-Airport recording 15 and San Antonio recording 17. In the Hill Country, temperatures were slightly lower, but not by much: Wimberley experienced 13 triple-digit days in June, according to weather data from the San Antonio International Airport.
Local weather reporter Ray Schiflett attributed the slight difference in temperatures to the more rural environment.
“We’re always cooler than Austin because they’re sitting in a bunch of concrete,” Schiflett said, who is based out of Driftwood. “They’re always three to four degrees hotter, so they typically record more 100-degree (and above) days than we do. Now, if you were to ask how many 97 degree days and above we experience, we’d probably match [Austin] pretty closely.”
Austin and Wimberley both continued to experience triple-digit days well into the beginning of July, each reaching highs over 105 degrees. Temperatures in Austin reached 110 on Sunday, July 10, tying for the hottest July day in recorded history for the city, as reported by Meteorologist Hunter Williams, KVUE. Meanwhile, parts of the area reached 106 degrees on Monday, July 11, according to weather data from the San Antonio International Airport.
“I’ve been recording weather since 1988,” Schiflett said. “And this is one of the hottest, if not the hottest, summers I’ve seen. 2011 was the hottest on record, with something like 50 days of 100 degrees or hotter; I wouldn’t be surprised if we got similar numbers by September 1.”
Schiflett said the high temperatures themselves were caused by a high-pressure dome over much of Texas, preventing the accumulation of significant rainfall across much of the state.
“There is usually, in the summertime, a big, high-pressure dome that sits up through east and central Texas,” Schiflett explained. “It normally centers over Mississippi and Georgia and now, it’s more over us, expanding westward. Right now, it’s 1500 miles wide, so what usually is just a couple hundred miles of severe heat has become significantly more intense.”
As for the reason for the shift, Schiflett said he could only speculate. He did, however, attribute much of the unusual weather to the El Niño/ La Niña phenomena — climate patterns that disrupt typical, seasonal weather conditions. Currently, La Niña conditions are ongoing, resulting in warmer and drier weather for Texas.
While the Hill Country has experienced sporadic rainstorms throughout the year, total rainfall for the Wimberley area sits around 10 inches for 2022, according to Schiflett.
“That’s a little more than half what we would expect by this time,” he said. “Unless we get some massive low-pressure system to come up and park over central Texas, I don’t see how we can get to the average amount of rainfall by the end of the year.”
With high temperatures and little rainfall to cool things off, many have expressed concerns about water and electricity usage.
The Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District issued a critical drought status on Wednesday, July 6, for northern Hays County.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages about 90 percent of the state’s electric load, requested that customers limit electricity usage on Monday, June 11, as temperatures were expected to hit well over 100 degrees.
“With extreme hot weather driving record power demand across Texas, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas is issuing a Conservation Appeal, asking Texans and Texas businesses to voluntarily conserve electricity, Monday, July 11 between 2-8 p.m.,” the council stated on its website. “ERCOT also issued a watch for a projected reserve capacity shortage from 2 to 8 p.m. At this time, no systemwide outages are expected.”
Less than 10 percent of installed wind power was expected to be available on Monday, ERCOT said, further reducing the available electricity.
Ultimately, the demand for electricity in Texas peaked on Monday at 4:50 p.m. at 78,379 MW, according to ERCOT’s website. At that time, the committed capacity — the amount of power available from online generating units — was 84,231 MW. Although the demand at 2 p.m. (76,499 MW) came close to the supply at that time (79,990 MW), operating reserves remained well above the 1,430 MW mark — at which point controlled outages (rolling blackouts) would have been required, according to agency policy.
