For much of July, North Texas was plagued by a seasonal high pressure dome that kept temperatures high and Gulf humidity trapped at the surface.
Denton County finally reached triple-digits last month, but all in all, the weather turned out to be pretty normal.
Our average high was 95 and our average low was 74. Our day-night average monthly temperature was 84, within half a degree of normal. Denton touched 100 on the 22nd and 101 on the 23rd. Our coolest morning was July 4th when we reached 67. For the last few days of July, a welcome cold front lowered afternoon highs to the lower 90’s.
Rainfall was good and relatively frequent for July. Denton Enterprise Airport recorded .17″ on July 1st, .55″ on the 4th and 5th, .38″ on the 8th and 9th and 1.63″ over the 23rd and 24th.
Other locales across Denton County had even heavier rains on the 23rd and 24th. Denton Creek near Justin recorded 3.5 inches; Double Oak picked up 3 inches; Trophy Club reported 2.6 inches. Officially, through July 28th, Denton Enterprise recorded 2.73 inches, nearly half an inch above normal for July. So far this year, Denton has received nearly 22 inches of rain, which is well above normal.
Denton County had several brushes with severe weather during the month, including the Fourth of July weekend, but the only official storm damage report came from Little Elm which had 1-inch hail near FM 423 and Panther Creek Parkway on July 9th.
Looking ahead, although Pacific Ocean temperatures are slightly above normal, there’s no strong model-consensus of developing an El Nino before winter. The overall monthly prediction for August in North Texas is slightly warmer and drier than normal, but the nearer-term forecast for the first ten days of August indicated cooler and slightly wetter conditions than normal. Let’s hope that forecast turns out to be right.
Brad Barton is Chief Meteorologist of WBAP820/KLIF570/99.5 “The Wolf” and the Texas Rangers Baseball Club.
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