Sunday’s heat was extreme for the greater Houston area. College Station, for example, set a daily record for July 10 by reaching 111 degrees. This was also its second hottest day on record, in any month, ever. In Houston, four of the first 10 days of July have now recorded 100-degree days. Sunday’s mark of 105 degrees tied the record for the hottest degree for any day in July. Anyway, here are the maximum temperature records set or tied on Sunday:
City of Houston: 105 degrees (101, set in 1998)
Houston Hobby: 104 degrees (100, set in 1964)
Galveston: 96 degrees (96, set in 1931)
College Station: 111 degrees (109, set in 1917)
It is worth noting that all of these locations also set or tied minimum temperature records on Sunday. For example, the low temperature in Houston never fell below 82 degrees. So overall you just experienced the warmest July day in nearly 150 years of records along the upper Texas coast.
Congratulations, or something.
I realize that some readers get twitchy when we write about about climate change. This is a weather site, not a climate site, and that’s our focus. But here’s the reality. Houston experienced an extremely hot and dry summer in 2011, just 11 years ago. At the time, it seemed historic. Also, as someone who lived through it, I can attest that it was miserable. But now 2022 may be on course to match or exceed it, at least in terms of heat. This is not normal. People can have reasonable debates about the precise causes of this excess heat, and what to do about it. But Sunday’s weather was atrocious, and not a future I particularly want to leave to my children.
Monday
The heat continues, albeit with slightly less burn, today. The National Weather Service has kept an “excessive heat warning” in place for the region’s far western counties, including the College Station and Brenham areas, where highs are likely to reach at least 105 degrees again today. Houston should also see highs of around 100 degrees, or perhaps a touch higher. Like on Sunday, some relief may come from scattered thunderstorms that will start out north of the region and then move through during the afternoon. While the rain is most assuredly welcome, these storms could bring some briefly strong winds. Otherwise winds will be light, out of the southwest at 5 to 10 mph.
Tuesday
The intense high pressure system that baked our region over the weekend will finally begin to back off to the west, and that will start to provide some slight relief, likely keeping highs in the Houston metro area just below 100 degrees. Rain chances will likely be around 20 percent.
Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday
These will, finally, feel more like typical mid-July days in Houston. We can probably expect highs roughly in the mid-90s, but there will also be some clouds to go along with 30 to 40 percent rain chances each day. Hopefully our parched trees and lawns see some welcome rain during this period.
The weekend and the Gulf blob
Careful observers of the National Hurricane Center will note that they are now predicting a 30 percent chance of a tropical system forming in the northern Gulf of Mexico during the next five days. Essentially, a cool front is moving down into the northeastern Gulf from Georgia and the Florida Panhandle. This, this system will then drift westward across the northern Gulf of Mexico and may impact our weather this weekend.
There are a lot of unknowns here, including whether the system will significantly intensify (probably not) and how far west it will come. If it moves all the way to Texas it could bring us some significant rainfall this weekend, but if it moves into Louisiana we’re going to remain hot and dry. For now I’d guess the weekend will continue to see hot and mostly sunny weather, but the forecast comes with an asterisk at this point.
A message from our sponsor
We’re including some tips we shared from Reliant over the weekend that can help manage energy usage, regardless of your electricity provider:
- Follow the 4×4 principle. Set your thermostat four degrees higher when you’re away from home for more than four hours to save on energy usage and costs.
- Rotate your ceiling fan counterclockwise for a wind chill effect. This can make the temperature in a room feel up to 4 degrees cooler allowing you to be more comfortable and adjust your thermostat to save money. Don’t forget to turn off your fan when leaving the room.
- Use blinds or curtains to reduce solar heat gain by up to 50 percent. Direct sunlight can increase the demand on your AC by as much as 30 percent.
- Beat the Heat Centers are located across Houston to provide a safe place for seniors and other vulnerable neighbors to cool off, allowing them to decrease their energy usage at home. To see a full list visit reliant.com/beattheheat.
Appreciate you so much Eric and Matt as well! Excessive heat has been rough on all. We’ll get through this like we always do.
Thunder started just southwest of the loop/Galleria area around 4 this morning and we had a reasonably good rain with thunder and lightning from about 5:30 to 6:45 am across Galleria area and points south, thankfully without wind. Super humid afterward but grateful for the rain.
Thanks for being scientific on this blog. I truly appreciate every word!
This weather was the same in 2015
There have already been more 100 degree days in 2022 than there were in the entire summer of 2015. Is there something I’m missing in your comment?
It’s kind of you to assume that he’s interested in data.
2Yeah, now, within the past 20 years, is the first time the climate has ever changed. It was always the same before that.
Tell me you don’t understand physics, without telling me you don’t understand physics. Lol.
wow, Ronnie, here all this time i thought Meteorology is a branch of Earth science that deals with Earth’s atmosphere, especially weather and climate. Scientists who study meteorology are called meteorologists.
so, the local weatherperson that says they are a meteorologist is really the same as Stephen Hawking. who knew?
Glad someone is getting rain! We have had 1 rain event since late May totaling about half an inch. Trees,yards and animals are really suffering. Hoping daily for some relief and I am thrilled to see clouds back as most of June was cloudless here.( NE of IAH a few miles)Yesterday was Amazing heat even in our well shaded yard.
It has been miserable. A tropical system coming through and giving us heavy rain this weekend sounds delightful. I know I am sick….sick of the heat.
I wishhhh!!!!
Of course it will stay east of us as always.
The tip on resetting our ceiling fans has really helped! Thank you for caring! God bless!
Why do we need to turn them off when we leave the room? We keep ours on cause it seems to rotate the stagnant air, we live in a small apartment that was built in the 1930s so it always feels stuffy without air circulation.
Because if there is no one there to feel the moving air, you are wasting energy.
It is also generating a bit of extra heat as well.
Eric, why the doom and gloom? I think our children (and now my grandchildren) are amazing and will figure out how to prosper. If you believe humans can have any impact on the climate, then you should know that the US is not the country having the most impact and you should know that the countries that are will not be changing their ways anytime soon or even in time to have the impact you’re hoping for. Besides, really, 150 years of data is a pretty small sample, but even that small sample shows this trend started before humans industrialized. Help our children (and my grandchildren) realized that they can have a great life if they stay positive. If they do, we can’t even imagine the things they will achieve in their generations.
Is it really that hard for you to believe that pulling 100s of trillions of pounds of oil and gas out from the ground, and burning it in our cars, power plants, airplanes, and homes over the past 100+ years isn’t going to have an impact on the climate? Let me repeat it: hundreds of trillions of pounds of hydrocarbons ignited in our atmosphere…. those combustion byproducts don’t just disappear, they hang around and are causing the greenhouse effect we’re seeing today. But you’re right, it does no use to be doomy and gloomy (which Eric wasn’t), we need to recognize the problem and start working on the solutions being put forward by our best minds. And let’s not sit around and wait to see what other countries are going to do. Let’s get to work now.
Ricardo – the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere from man’s industrial and transportation activities is something less than one one hundredth of one percent – to think that that miniscule amount of CO2 has anything to do with the weather or the climate is to abandon all common sense – don’t buy into the greatest hoax ever which is just a disguised way of attacking capitalism and out way of life
Not sure where you got your numbers from, but it’s closer to 0.014%, which has increased CO2 levels by 50‰. It doesn’t matter how small that first number is, what matters is the energy balance and what that does to global average temperatures (it increases it by a small percentage, for example 15C to 17C is a 0.7% increase).
Bless your heart
I was raised in the Christian faith. I was taught that the Earth and everything in it was created perfect without sin or death until one day man’s selfishness caused him to disobey God by biting from the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. That this single selfish action brought sin, death, pain and suffering into the entirely of Creation. Whether someone of faith believes this to be literal or allegorical, the message that any selfishness in our heart is destructive to everything around us is the same. Destroying habitats, consuming resources for our own convenience and economic prosperity, blaming others, exploiting cheap labor, ignoring truth to avoid introspection are all selfish choices. From a Christian perspective, we know this leads to destruction. We have seen pollution create acid rain and destroy the ozone. We understand the mechanisms that cause certain gasses to have a greenhouse effect. We are ignoring the evidence of our eyes for our own greed and convenience.
Thank you for this thoughtful and well-spoken comment. ❤️🙏
We’re going to need a lot more than staying positive
Have no idea what you mean by “doom and gloom.” I mentioned the science of climate change, nothing more. Sounds political.
Yes, before 2011, 1998 was the OG. Now we’re breaking that summer’s records with regularity, however.
What is particularly revealing is that we are getting similar levels of heat to 2011 even though the ground is not as dry, and (i do not remember 2011 personally, but i suppose) there was more intense high pressure in 2011, since the drought was worse. It seems very reasonable to attribute this to climate change.
Yes, this is a good point.
“Hottest day ever….” unless you have 2billion years of data, no weather center should claim that.
Please quote the whole thing if you want to have an honest discussion: “This was also its second hottest day on record, in any month, ever.”
Emphasis on record.
What is it going to take to “permanently” move that ridge of high pressure off this area? It seems like very time it looks like it is going to lift and we will go back to our regularly scheduled summer, it clicks back into place and we bake. As someone who lives in College Station and saw her thermometer go over 110 yesterday, I am really curious what it will take.
Time and the autumnal equinox. The summer high is the continental tropical air mass that waxes when the Northern Hemisphere points toward the sun, and wanes when it points away. In La Niña years like this one and 2011, it’s stronger since the jet stream doesn’t run through the area where it forms.
There are about 75-90 days of hot weather to go.
Thank you for talking about climate change in today’s post. A meme went around Facebook last week that said, “Stop asking if people believe in climate change and start asking if they understand it. It’s science, not Santa Claus.” Agreed. At this point, it’s irresponsible not to point to human-caused climate change when we see its effects. We’re already beyond the point of needing to sound the alarm and at the point of, “You were warned. Do something before it’s too late.” People listen to you, Eric and Matt. It’s not just okay for you to talk about climate change; it’s necessary. Keep up the good work.
Agree and I appreciate Matt and Eric mentioning it. It’s the elephant in the room.
I am now officially “On Strike” – no more early morning bike riding until the a. m. minimum temp drops to at least 80.
Let them twitch. Thank you for your scientific, data-driven reporting, as always, Eric.
“Montreal once had two miles of ice on top of it, the climate changes, always has”
Wasn’t the ice age ended by a giant meteor though? Is that REALLY the same as man-made global warming?
And nothing we are seeing today can be called gradual. There are no natural processes here outside of volcanic activity, meteor impacts, or solar fluctuations that can cause changes of the magnitude we have seen in the last 40 years, and none of those things have happened.
I’m in agreement that Mother Nature has amply warned us, we have the tools and knowledge to fix things, but now it comes down to actually taking action.
Two out of three is okay, right? (sarcasm)
Meanwhile, the southwest Inner Loop got a good dousing before dawn. I hope the clouds stay around to shield us from the sun.
The Inner Loop has been hitting the rainfall lottery with regularity of late. I’m jealous.
Is the Gulf/Atlantic extra warm too, and will that impact hurricane season?
The Gulf is warmer than normal right now, yes. But the reality is that by July the Gulf is always warm enough to support/strengthen hurricanes so it’s more a matter of whether there is wind shear and/or dry air, than the sea surface temperatures themselves.
As always thanks Eric, appreciate the statement of facts.
It hit 103.8 yesterday according to my cheap weather station. Thunder to the west around 10:15 PM but no rain. Driveway looked like it had seen water this morning, probably just condensation given a morning low of 83.
Honestly, the crime and pervasive poverty in Houston are bad enough, but it is the climate that will be driving me out of here for retirement. With our regular summers being bad enough, having to deal with multiple Gulf hurricanes each year, and an infrastructure unable to deal with a mere 16F cold snap, why would you live here if you didn’t have too? The places I’m considering have their own issues (tornadoes and occasional ice storms) but overall worth it being 10 degrees cooler year-round. And no hurricanes.
Seriously? We have a wonderful gardening climate, and are in the best and greatest state politically and otherwise (except for the weather in July and August) in the US.
What impact does the Heat Island Effect have on these temperature measurements?
A lot
I live in the SW Inner Loop. Last night around 8PM, it was 102F outside my front door. Looking at the Weather app at that same time, Pearland was listed at 92F. It definitely makes a difference, especially in the late afternoon/early evening.
“But Sunday’s weather was atrocious, and not a future I particularly want to leave to my children.”
Yep! And still the outlying areas of Houston/Harris County continue to have former rice fields covered with concrete for new subdivisions. There is something seriously wrong with this picture.
Totally agree. Not only does it affect temperatures but causes flooding as well. Maybe the weather stations should be moved away from urban sprawl if that’s possible.
Climate change deniers are so annoying.
ThE CLiMaTe aLwAyS ChaNgEs
A strong July cold front like we got a few years back would really be awesome. I assume the chance of that happening are somewhere around zero though.
@BlackhawksFan—“I can’t wait to retire and move to Houston “ said no one ever.
My guess is that most of the commenters did not live in Texas in the early 1950s.
I did, and, trust me, it was a lot hotter then than now.
and in the early 1800s Trinity Bay froze sufficiently that people could actually walk across it – I’ll take the heat any day over that
Maybe it felt hotter due to lack of AC but it was objectively cooler.
The average temperature in the Houston area from 1950-1954 was 70.64 degrees. From 2017-2021 it was 71.4 degrees. That era was one of the warmer periods in Houston, but recent temps have been even worse. All data from NOAA.
Please talk more about climate change, along with weather. Climate change is happening and directly impacts weather–and everything else. People need to know.
It’s fine to discuss climate change, but it has to be about trends, not about a single day or month. You should not assert something like “our hot June was consistent with climate change,” like you did last month; that is a vacuous statement because ANY average temperature in a singular June is consistent with climate change, and you also leave yourself open to meritless counterattacks when we have a cold snap in the winter, like Feb last year. In addition, even if you demonstrate warming in Texas over the past decades, you have NOT demonstrated rising temperatures worldwide, nor have you demonstrated the CAUSE of the trend.
Crazy cold snaps are also consistent with climate change though. They’re not claiming anything outlandish that needs to have a thesis written by them. There’s plenty of evidence for these claims.
But if I ignore all the evidence there isn’t any so I need Eric to personally prove it to me
Why you trolling so hard stranger?
“…meritless counterattacks…” Did you read that part of my comment? It’s not scientific to claim that any short term data on weather in Southeast Texas supports climate change. That’s a fact. It’s a much bigger topic than that. If Eric and Matt want to discuss climate change they should do it right and not make it some back and forth Twitter argument.
Since when does global warming cause crazy cold snaps?
I appreciate your detailed reporting as usual. Sorry about all the “twitchy” grief from the folks who got their degree in climate science from YouTube University.
It would probably help to remove feedback bias to account for thermal conditioning via urban expansion, especially overnight records. If joes farm were experiencing the same kind of warming we are seeing throughout urban cores and we can accurately compare the two to remove warm biases it may be more insightful for the public.
Those feedback effects (the urban heat island) directly affect the heat experienced by residents and thus energy consumption, health impacts, etc. So I don’t think temperature readings should be ‘corrected’ when we talk about it in the short-term reporting and forecasting.
If you’re really looking at it from an earth science perspective, there is value in removing those effects as best as we can to see what the atmospheric impacts are, however the weather at Joe’s does have impacts from the nearest big city, increased traffic passing by, etc.
Agreed, but it would be interesting to see what correlation between 5k new homes with black roofs and concrete streets and temperature data vs that of unchanged land.
People need to stop making roofs black in Houston!
First, let it be said that the atmosphere should not be a free zone for unnatural CO2 emissions. Most people would agree that a fee is needed to put combustion by-products into the sky and to put fossil fuel on same playing field as the others. Talk to your rep about it.
On this site tho, people want to know and only know why it’s hot and why no rain. When will it rain. This drought has effectively been in place since early 2020. We’re low by around 14” of water over this 3 year period. The drought coincides with a “triple dip” La Niña. You can look it up. 2011 and 1998 also were La Niña years. The jet stream is up by Nebraska so there is nothing to make the weather change. More of the sun’s energy goes to sensible heat as there isn’t as much water to evaporate. It is hard for rain to get this far west as the weather is influenced by the Mexican plateau this time of year. This time of year you only get rain from the tropics so hope for that (but no direct hit hurricanes are wanted).
Is it hotter by a couple of degf than it used to be? No doubt. But is this the end of life as we know it? The hyperbole is what turns off the non-meteorologist engineers and scientists. We’re comfortable with data and trained to work thru and solve problems. Appreciate the data that we get from the site and more macro weather info is even more appreciated. I perused the “weather whys” section this weekend. Lot of good info there if data makes you feel better. PS we tossed our tomato plants yesterday – trying to grow tomatoes this year was big mistake. I’m sorry for y’all that earn your livelihood from growing stuff.
Highs protect us from Hurricanes. Lows attract them. Seems we have to make a choice.
Yes it’s a few degrees hotter NOW. What do you think it will be like in twenty years, when our children become adults, if we do nothing to decrease emissions?
Last summer was cool and wet. Not one day got to 100, and there was a lot of rain. This year is the opposite.
Yes the climate changes. Over the course of thousands of years. Not decades.
Btw I meant the change IS happening over the course of decades currently, which is not good.
Since discovering your Facebook page, I have been grateful for your focus on “hype-free”, politics -free, straight reporting of weather issues. Please don’t change that focus now. Just this one post has people on the edge of calling people names.
Kathy, I couldn’t agree with you more! I am so tired of having to endure a dose of social/political commentary every time I try to obtain benign information from a source or patronize a business these days. I noted that some of the commenters on this thread said something to the effect that people need to be aware. Are you kidding? We have the world wide web and 24/7 cable news at our fingertips. There is no way that people either aren’t already aware, or couldn’t become aware, of societal issues by using sources for that purpose that they can go to themselves. I love this website, and I find the information extremely helpful and trustworthy. Eric and Matt do a terrific job! However, I would like to assure them that I am not relying on them to educate me about the pros and cons of climate change or any other subject, for that matter, besides the weather forecast in our area. If they feel a professional ethical responsibility to speak to issues such as climate change, perhaps they could put that discussion in a separate link on their website.
Well, it is the “Problem of our Generation” so sorry if that makes you uncomfortable when you go pick up your coffee.
Weather and Climate change are as intertwined as 2 Cousins in Arkansas, so get used to it!
not remotely the only problem of my generation
It is a screamer! I just stayed in yesterday and have one trip to grocery store today. MY AC WENT OUT last night …. my AC man is coming this afternoon. I feel bad about him working in this heat. Hopefully not a problem in the attic.
Re the warmer temps. Here in Katy and next to Harris County …. we are rapidly covering North Fort Bend County with Concrete. I believe that contributes to the higher temps. BS
I can’t/don’t understand how 2 little words can bring out the worst in people
I don’t understand how people can’t say climate change isn’t real. It’s obvious pollution affects the health of humans. Why is it so outlandish to think humans’ are accelerating climate change? Of course, the climate of the earth has always changed (even before humans), but we are certainly speeding up the process.
Whenever the words Climate Change are invoked, there is an implied call to action that people must “do something” about it. What is that “something,” as residents of the greater Houston area, are we expected to do to stop China (who burns more coal than the rest of the world combined) from continuing to build coal power plants?
This type of thinking is elementary school thinking “But they’re doing it!”
What do we do? Take the lead as the U.S should and advocate for change on a global scale. I wish people were patriotic in this sense, instead of asking why don’t we follow China’s lead..
Man, people are quick to forget the summer of 1980. 60+ straight days of 100+ heat.
I don’t think your memory is correct. Weather data for houston in 1980 shows a very hot summer but nothing like 60+ days over 100
https://weatherspark.com/h/m/9247/1980/7/Historical-Weather-in-July-1980-in-Houston-Texas-United-States#Figures-Temperature
Thanks for your diligence, SCW. It is much appreciated.
I’m going to steer clear of the global warming debate and bring something hopeful and cheerful to everyone’s attention. Only 76 days (+ or – about 14 days) until fall day 2022!
There should be nothing “twitchy” about the correct scientific fact of climate change science, vis a vis the greenhouse effect, which is not separate from weather. Climate and weather are fundamentally interrelated and inseparable, and climate change will continue to cause more extreme weather events, and it’s going to get worse, and there is absolutely no “debate” about these causes, only debate about politics and solutions. Let’s dispense with false dichotomies ans regressive logic.
Thanks for mentioning climate change. At some point it becomes inescapable, and it needs to be discussed. It’s frustrating that in this day and age we still see so many “self taught climatologists” contradicting the world wide scientific consensus.
Thank you guys for what you do!
Really Appreciate you staying a Weather place. All weather is Cyclical and we have too short of a lifespan to truly appreciate that. I Lived in Phoenix in the ’90s when it hit 127 F. I remember 2011 and I want to know when to expect a change in the weather, up, down or sideways. Keep Up the Good work!
I get climate change ONLY because it has been happening since the earth was formed. But, isn’t there a theory that the first ice age occurred because earth was hit by a large meteorite? Has it occurred to you that earth warming up is the way it’s suppose to be? We cannot demand that the rest of the world comply to what others say we need to do to stop climate change. Plus, recent reports have come out stating that because we have stopped so much pollution, this, in turn, is causing more hurricanes. Maybe there is no answer. Maybe earth is continuing on the pattern it was meant to be on concerning the warming trend, and maybe it will take another meteorite to knock us slightly off our axis to create another ice age. But, if that were to happen, imagine the loss of life during and afterwards.
This may not be a “site for this discussion” but climate has changed and it’s getting worse. Hotter hots; colder colds and we are not prepared. We are beyond a discussion on “change” and need to enter a discussion on management. Soon, there will be a migration of “climate refugees” in this country due to a significant lack of water supply (especially in the southwest). Too many straws are dipped in our rivers and lakes as residential development has run roughshod over existing natural resources. While it may be unfair to blame politicians for an electric grid that can’t keep us warm in winter and cool in summer, the fault lies in ourselves for kicking this can down the road for 30 years.
It was 113 F on Labor Day, 1999 in Sugar Land, TX. There is nothing new about hot weather in Texas.
Yes there is something new about hot weather in Texas, it’s called climate change SCIENCE. Take a look at the data, it’s getting hotter, not cooler. And in my 52 years of living here, I’m quite certain I know it’s getting hotter. If you don’t care or don’t want to do anything about it
that’s your OPINION. Don’t be an idiot. I teach science happy to tutor you for a small fee.
Kill the climate change talk. We get it beaten into our heads everywhere else. We don’t need this site to beat it into our heads too. Guess I’ll just have to look at the Apple weather app to get my “hype free” forecasts.
HOLLY COW!! Good night………
And a good morning to you!
Thanks guys for the great information as always. Please don’t let the “twitchy” reaction to mentioning climate change stop you, it would be crazy not to mention it when observing records being repeatedly broken as our weather patterns change.
The fact that discussing science is viewed as political and makes people twitch is a really sad state of affairs. Please continue to educate readers on all aspects of weather—data, trends, causes, etc. Perhaps at some point we can all begin to focus on making changes versus feeling something twitchy over the science. Thank you for what you do!