Records for September 2026 are still being finalized, but by all accounts, this past September shattered previous records in Denton County and across DFW.
The average high for the month was 98.9 degrees, more than 3 degrees hotter than the previous hottest average high of 95.4 degrees in September 2023. The average low was 75.7 degrees, barely warmer than the previous record of 75.6 degrees in September 2023. The average temperature for the month was 87.3 degrees, nearly 2 degrees warmer than the previous hottest September average of 85.5 degrees in 2019.
With a high temperature of 96 degrees, Sept. 27Â was the 100th day in a row with high temperatures of 90 or warmer. To quote the NWS, “This is by far, the most consecutive days of highs 90 or warmer. The previous record of 79 consecutive days at or above 90 was set in the deadly summer of 1980, when temperatures in late June soared to 110-113 degrees.
Rainfall — or the lack of it — is sadly obvious from the scores of dead trees and bushes across North Texas. North Texas endured the second-worst drought on record, with more than 64 days at DFW Airport without measurable rain before just 0.01 inches fell Sept. 21.
For much of Denton County, the last measurable rainfall of 0.11 inches was recorded July 12. Since then, nothing had fallen through Sept. 26. That adds up to 76 days at Denton Enterprise Airport with nothing in the rain gauge.
It’s not uncommon for Texas weather to end a drought with a flood, and that’s how things looked during the last week of September. Moisture from Pacific Hurricane Polo was being pulled across the Gulf of California, through northern Mexico and into Texas.
Before it approached the Mexican coast, Hurricane Polo exploded into possibly the strongest hurricane ever detected in the eastern Pacific. With water temperatures as warm as 80 degrees — more than 3 degrees warmer than normal — Polo’s maximum sustained winds reached 180 mph in just over a day.
And that is evidence that El Niño — warmer-than-normal ocean temperatures north of the equator in the central Pacific — is on track to be the strongest El Niño since 1950. El Niños generally produce more and heavier storms in the Pacific southwest of North America. Those storms can ride upper-level winds across Mexico into Texas and much of the South.
Currently, the Climate Prediction Center is forecasting above-normal rainfall in Texas from October through March 2027. That’s not necessarily all bad, since we desperately need rain now.
What goes along with a strong El Niño and above-normal rainfall predictions is a more active fall severe weather season. October is also especially known for heavy, prolonged rain events in North Texas.
If you’ve never seen the mighty Trinity River levee-to-levee in downtown Dallas, this may be the year for it. The fall severe weather season is underway, so be ready for anything — not just severe storms and possible tornadoes, but also a slowly increasing risk of flooding across North Texas.
