2020 rainfall ends up above average
By Sandy Morris
Twenty-twenty will be remembered for many unusual things, but Shackelford County weather isn’t going to fall into that category.
According to Hector Guerrero with the National Weather Service out of San Angelo, local weather was not the big story of 2020.
“Overall, the weather just wasn’t that horrible last year,” said Guerrero.
Shackelford County saw snow on Jan. 11 with 2.0 inches and again on Feb. 6 with another 2.3 inches.
During February, there were three Mondays in a row with a high of 81 degrees, yet the coldest day of 2020 was on Feb. 7 when the thermometer dipped to 15 degrees.
Mild temperatures returned in March, but there was an early spring scorcher March 25 when the high was 92 degrees.
After starting off April with reports of two-inch hail on April 11, residents had enjoyable weather, but temps began to climb by the end of the month through May, coming close to hitting the century mark.
Guerrero did mention a tornado that touched down near the Robertson Unit in April, but it died when it reached the southwest part of Shackelford County.
June was hot, but July fired off with a string of 100+ degree days, continuing to climb to the two hottest days of the year, falling on Aug.16 and 17 with highs of 107 degrees on both days.
“It got pretty warm during the summer,” said Guerrero. “We had a flash drought over the summer, but that ended with some nice rainfall in late September.”
September also brought the first break in the heat, with a cool front on Sept. 10 dropping the high to 51 degrees.
October couldn’t make up its mind if it wanted to remain warm or transition into fall.
Instead, October jumped straight into winter with an early cold front hitting an upper level storm system, dropping a mix of freezing rain, drizzle, sleet, and snow on Albany.
While there wasn’t a significant amount of wintry precipitation documented, it was noted by the NWS that 1/4 inch of ice was reported on power lines.
November returned to more fall-like temperatures and a Thanksgiving Day high of 82.
There was no white Christmas for Shackelford County, but colder temperatures arrived on New Year’s Eve, bringing reports of one to three inches of snow in the county.
The NWS reported the precipitation for the county was slightly higher than normal with 30.9 inches recorded for the year, compared to the average of 26.5 inches.
