Crunching the Numbers on our Spring Heat

You don't need a meteorologist to tell you that it has been a hot spring. Not only have temperatures been above normal since April, but in many cases, we have broken record highs and seen temperatures top out at the century mark on a number of occasions.

The main reason for our hot stretch of weather solely has to do with our extreme to exceptional drought which continues to hold its grip on Deep East Texas.

Over the last couple of days, I did some number crunching on our high temperatures. Here's some interesting factoids in a category I like to call "Did You Know."

Number of 100° Days
The Angelina County Airport, just south of Lufkin, has hit the century mark already 6 times this month, including today. Considering we have another 14 days to go, who knows how many more triple digit days we might see.

Record High Temperatures
Since May 1st, we have tied our record high temperature only 2 times, but have broken or surpassed the record on 7 different occasions.

Number of 90° Days in 2011
This stat may be the most staggering to date. In looking back at the highs since April 1st, we have hit or surpassed the 90° mark an astonishing 39 times. Of those occurrences, we had a temperature of 90° or higher 10 times in the month of April which is mind-boggling.

We can't end this blog entry before giving you some good news. It does look like the heat will let up by the middle of next week as our high pressure ridge breaks down. That let up in the heat will also come with better rain chances. I'll have more on this in the days ahead.