Dallas finally has first 100° day of 2007

It was mentioned a number of times over the course of the summer and especially this month. When the ongoing heat wave first made its presence felt in the southern portion of the United States, on-camera meteorologists at The Weather Channel kept saying Dallas had yet to record a 100° day this calendar year. Well, that changed back on Saturday.

August 11, 2007 will be remembered for the short term by many as that first day it finally reached 100° when Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport recorded it at 3:22 PM Central Daylight Time that day. The one reason it gained any attention is that it has been a very unusually wet year for Texas, including Dallas. Typically every summer is hot and more times than not, pretty dry. We aren't talking about desert dry. But it is not normally oppressively humid in northern Texas either as observers would see along the Gulf Coast, in Florida and during heat waves in the northeastern United States. Take it from someone that lives in the New York City metropolitan area. When the mercury is above 90° here, much more often than not it is really humid where monitoring the heat index is a common practice.

From Saturday to yesterday (Wednesday), here are what the high temperatures were for Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport:

August 11, 2007 - 100°
August 12, 2007 - 104°
August 13, 2007 - 104°
August 14, 2007 - 104°
August 15, 2007 - 102°

Dallas is known for its hot summers, but definitely not as much as the desert southwestern cities such as Phoenix and Las Vegas. Even so, it's been a below-average summer this year. During the peak of the season, Dallas normally reaches the mid 90s for high temperatures. Metroplex residents probably thought they'd get off easy in 2007. That quickly was foiled when a very strong upper-level high pressure took residence in the southern United States. Atlanta has been setting new records for over a week now. In the Carolinas, cities such as Columbia have done the same. Memphis was cooking yesterday as this Tennessee city topped out at a record-high 106°. You wonder how Elvis Presley fans could put up with the heat when paying their respects to the legendary singer on the 30th anniversary of his death at Graceland.

As it turned out, Saturday marked the 6th-latest date during a given summer that Dallas recorded its first triple-digit reading. Keep in mind that the National Weather Service forecast office in Fort Worth does not provide archived daily weather roundups for Love Field in Dallas. This explains why The Weather Channel announced this 100° high temperature for Dallas on August 11th by using Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport's data. Here are the top ten latest dates that Dallas recorded its first 100° day in a given summer season as stated by the National Weather Service. As you can see, only twice has Dallas failed to do so.

T-1. 1906, 1973 - NONE
3. August 23, 1989
4. August 19, 1905
5. August 16, 1903
6. August 11, 2007
7. August 10, 1992
8. August 8, 1968
T-9. August 7, 1908 and August 7, 1919

Other notable statistics include...

Earliest 100° day in any calendar year: March 9, 1911
Latest 100° day in any calendar year: August 23, 1989
Average date of first 100° day: June 30th
Average number of 100° days in a calendar year: 16
Most 100° days in a calendar year: 69 in 1980

The 100°+ heat wave should come to an end today as the remnants of Tropical Storm Erin will move into central and northern Texas from the Gulf Coast. The Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area won't see the moderate to heavy rain that Corpus Christi, Brownsville, Victoria and Houston are getting, but any rain will help bring some relief.