Brace yourselves, Texans. This is shaping up to be a hellacious summer, even by Lone Star standards.
While summer does not officially kick off until June 20 (at 4:51 P.M. ET, if you want to be especially precise about it), the high temperature in the Dallas/Fort Worth area hit 95 degrees on Wednesday, tying a record that stretched back to 1933.
The heat index in the area reached into the triple digits, topping 103 degrees.
That’s causing the state’s main grid operator to warn users to expect high demand in the coming weeks, though for now there is no threat of brown- or blackouts. “Grid conditions are expected to be normal, but due to forecasted conditions, operating reserves may be lower,” wrote ERCOT in its Weather Watch alert.
Temperatures are expected to be significantly lower as the state moves into the weekend.
The heatwave comes just days after some areas outside of Houston saw rain as high as 23 inches, which resulted in hundreds of people in need of rescue and at least one death. At one point, the storms brought up to nine inches of rain to some areas in a span of just six to eight hours.
Forecasters have warned this could just be the beginning. A report last month from the Texas State Climatologist at Texas A&M University, John Nielsen-Gammon, predicted more extreme events this year, including excessive rainfall, noting that clouds produce about 4% more rainfall for every degree Fahrenheit the average temperature increases. That can alter weather patterns and increase the number of dangerous storms.
Texas last summer saw temperatures in some areas that were hotter than 99% of the planet, noted some meteorologists. In July, one forecast called for the northern part of the state to reach as high as 112 degrees.
By 2036, the report said, the chances of a 100-degree-plus day will be four times what it was in the 1970s and 1980s.
