It’s hot, but no major records broken

By Donnie A. Lucas

While the dog days of summer usually span from July 3 until Aug. 11, according to the Farmer’s Almanac, the period of oppressive summer heat got a big head start this year.

Some individual daily high temperature records have been set so far in June and July, but surprisingly major records for Albany have yet to be broken.

The hottest temperature recorded in the 100+ years since records have been kept is 115 degrees set on June 27, 1972. The highest yet this year is 109 degrees reached Monday.

The longest span of consecutive days over 100 degrees is 44 days set back in the summer of 1952.

During the months of May, June, and thus far in July, there have been 42 days that have reached or exceeded 100 degrees. There were 11 days in May, 16 days in June, and 15 days (so far) in July.

While the prospects for significant breaks in the weather don’t look good any time soon, there will be some minor reductions to nearer 100 degrees over the next few days.

“We are looking at a subtle change in the upper level ridge by the weekend,” said Mike Castillo, warning coordinator meteorologist with the National Weather Service in San Angelo. “We are hopefully going to have a little more cloud cover as that system shifts eastward, bringing some minor relief.”

Minor relief in this case is temperatures near 100 degrees rather than 105 to 110 degrees.

“It is sort of a forecast of hot versus very hot,” he added.

The temperatures are being allowed to rise more than normal due to low humidities and a lack of any notable rainfall since the first week of June.

The conditions are perfect for grass fires, although there haven’t been as many as normally expected in Shackelford County with such high temperatures and low moisture levels, although there were some major wildfires in nearby counties at press time.

Local fire departments helped extinguish a fire south of Moran that burned about 350 acres on Monday. Area departments and the Texas A&M Forest Service responded quickly to limit the damage.

Another grass fire near the intersections of U.S. 180 and FM 2482 about five miles east of Albany was contained quickly on Monday, although a barn and some outbuildings were destroyed.

“This was a small but fast moving blaze, and had it not been for the quick actions of all involved, we could have had a terrible outcome,” Joel Viertel with the Albany VFD said. “A least four homes in the area were saved.”

He reported that the fire was fought by the Shackelford Fire Dept., Albany Fire Dept., a dozer company, and various law enforcement personnel.

The Texas Forest Service sent out a critical danger warning last week for much of central Texas due to continued drought conditions and extremely high temperatures.