Rain chances diminish as we start the last week of August
NORTH TEXAS (CBSNewsTexas.com) - We were so close to getting some rain at the DFW Airport Sunday afternoon but missed it by about four miles.
Meteorological Summer ends on Thursday as the third driest summer on record with a paltry 1.25" of rain, the driest summer in 71 years. This now makes 42 days without measurable rain, including the trace recorded at the airport on Sunday.
The summer likely ends as the third hottest summer on record as well. There is even a chance this month will go down as the hottest month ever at DFW.
Speaking of the heat, we had yet another 100° day at DFW, our 11th in a row. That makes 47 for the year, tying last year's count. We are currently sitting at 6th on the list.
There was a decent amount of rain Sunday in parts of Tarrant County, Parker County and the south. It looks like another streak of dry weather starts Monday and goes past the holiday.
Please enjoy the "cooler" weather coming up. At least we stop all the 100° days of late. However, notice what happens as soon as we start September and go into Labor Day weekend. Back to more 100s.
In the first five days, we could log as many 100° September days as we've had over the last five years.
Every model run of Tropical Storm Idalia seems to be getting worse. The forecast now is for a Category 2 hurricane to hit somewhere around the Big Bend area of Florida early Wednesday. Tampa is holding its collective breath as it sits in the cone of uncertainty.
The forecast track model package used by the Hurricane Center seems in general agreement with this idea of a Big Bend strike.
One of our in-house forecast models puts something closer to a Category 3 hurricane in about the same place in the early morning hours of Wednesday. The waters of the Gulf ahead of this storm have never been this warm before and rapid intensification on Monday/Tuesday is expected.
All of us will be watching closely. Just about the entire west coast of Florida is under a hurricane watch. Given the angle and intensity of this hurricane, storm surge damage could be significant.
Below is the 7-day forecast that takes us into Fall.
