A Wet First Two Weeks of July

July 14th, 2012 at 11:27 am by under Weather

What a difference a year makes.

Last summer in Austin, July 1-13 featured twelve days at or above 100 degrees and only a trace of rain.

This July 1-13 in town, we’ve only had two days of triple-digit temperatures and we’ve enjoyed 1.88″ of rain!

The stark differences between the first half of July 2011 vs. July 2012 are due to a major difference in the large-scale weather pattern.  Last July, an impenetrable ridge of high pressure refused to release its grip on the state, producing searing heat and virtually no rain.  This year instead of high pressure ridging, low pressure troughs have been the rule!  This has provided cooler temperatures, increased cloud cover, and better chances of rain.  We can only hope that this will continue.

In the meantime, check out some rain totals from around the Austin area over the last two weeks (below).  Although Camp Mabry has checked out with a very generous 1.88″ over the first 13 days of July, many other locations have been even more fortunate with 3-5″ of rain commonplace across the region.  See if you can find the 8″+ total near Wilbarger Creek that lead to flash flooding on July 10.

These are brought to you courtesy of LCRA, and their interactive map is available to you anytime here.

 

 

 

 

Permalink 4 Comments

4 Responses to “A Wet First Two Weeks of July”

  1. Joshua Kight says:
    July 15, 2012 at 2:03 pm

    Does this mean El Nino is here as opposed to La Nina .?

    1. davidyeomans says:
      July 16, 2012 at 1:14 pm

      Yes – good catch. Conditions have changed fairly rapidly in the past few months from a weak La Nina to a developing El Nino pattern. This is measured by NOAA on their MEI scale (Multivariate ENSO Index), taking into account variables such as equatorial Pacific sea surface temperatures and cloud cover, as well as large-scale global pressure anomalies.

      El Nino in central Texas usually leads to increased cloud cover and rain chances.

  2. sandra mathis says:
    July 16, 2012 at 6:17 pm

    Just wanted to let the weather crew that we received 3.25 inches of rain last evening. We live 2 miles out of Florence on FM487 toward Jarrell. Around 4 pm it started thundering and the rain came down hard and fast. After a very noisy hour it calmed down to a nice soft rain. Our power went out around 6 pm and came back on at 11:35. Thanks for including Florence but we did receive a lot more than the town did.

    Sandy

  3. John Nunley says:
    July 17, 2012 at 12:50 pm

    Seems also pretty obvious the effect El Nino has on our northern states. Brutal heat under a stubborn dome of high pressure.