Has 2018 been the hottest summer ever in Rockdale?
Not even close, but in a couple of categories you can already make a case it could end up as the second hottest.
The first substantial rainfall of the summer visited the area around 3:30 p.m. Monday, cooling off temperatures with totals of up to two inches reported in some Rockdale locations, more north of town.
But there’s still a case to be made that the period from Aug. 16-29 has been right up there with the hottest continuous two weeks recorded in the 95 years weather records have been kept here.
During those 14 days the average high temperature was 104. In 11 of those days the mercury climbed to either 104 (six times) or 105 (five times).
‘ONLY 101’—It was so hot many Rockdale residents adopted a new definition of the word.
When KRXT’s Charlie McGregor announced Friday the previous day’s high had been “only” 101 everyone knew what he meant.
Weather records are kept at the radio station.
August is almost always Rockdale’s hottest month but 2018’s was swelteringly so.
The mercury hit triple digits 26 of its 31 days. Sunday’s (Sept. 2) reading of 97 broke an 18-day string of 100-plus readings.
2011—Of course the summer of 2018 still has three weeks to go and September could still generate some triple digit temperatures.
In fact, Rockdale’s hottest reading of all time, 113, was recorded on Sept. 4, 2000.
Many of the 2018 summer numbers would be challenging for all-time record status if not for what happened seven years ago.
In the almost unfathomable summer of 2011, there were 94 days in which 100-degree-plus readings were recorded. That compares to 41, so far, this summer.
While 2018 has had those 11 days of 105 or higher, there were 42 of them in 2011.
The major difference between the summers of 2011 and 2018 is that this year—while it was definitely hot and uncomfortable—there were no triple digit readings in June.
Seven years ago there were 21 highs of 100 or greater in June and the month topped out at 107.
‘THE STREAK’—But 2018 has “out-hotted” 2011 in one respect, a six-day stretch in July that’s second only to the all-time record “halfway to boiling” week at the end of August and beginning of September 2000.
Beginning July 18, 2018, the official thermometer recorded consecutive highs of 105, 106, 107, 108, 108 and 111.
That tops any one week of 2011.
Beginning Aug. 31, 2000, Rockdale recorded consecutive highs of 110, 110, 108, 110, 113 and 112.
Water boils at sea level at 212 degrees Fahrenheit. That means the 113 high—and the 112, for that matter—are more than halfway to the boiling point.
RAINFALL—While Monday’s official rainfall total at KRXT was just .55-inch, there were unofficial reports throughout town ranging up to, and over, two inches.
There were reports of four inches falling just north of Rockdale.
And the forecast is for more rain chances this week, with a late summer high pressure pattern retreating and suddenly active tropics which produced Tropical Storm Gordon in the Gulf.
With August, 2018, now in the books there actually was a little bit of precipitation during the month.
A total of .92-inch fell between Aug. 11 and 13.
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