The year in Houston weather (2011)

110°

100°

90°

80°

70°

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50°

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10°

50˝

40˝

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0˝

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