Heat and Hurricanes in the Heart of Houston Summer

In case you decided not to leave your air conditioned home over the past few days, it's been hot outside. Like really hot. In fact, it reached 101 degrees for the fourth straight day, the first time we have seen temperatures like this since the summer of 2011 when we had an entire month of 100-plus days in the midst of an awful drought.

For Houston, the weeks between the first of August and early September are the peak of the summer heat, but this is a bit much even for those of us used to summers in the South.

Then there is hurricane season. Some might consider what we have had so far to be quiet, but, in fact, the vast majority of hurricane activity in the Atlantic occurs between mid-August and mid-October. It is perfectly normal to only have two named storms before August 15 and it would not be shocking at all to see storms begin to ramp up soon even if most storm forecast models aren't showing anything of substance for another ten days to two weeks.

The point is that the dry weather and relatively quiet conditions in the tropics should not be reason to let your guard down. We have, at least on the Texas coast, roughly six weeks of hurricane season left. Once those first cool fronts of late September and early October make their way across the state, it effectively puts an end to significant tropical weather threats. Until then, we would do well to keep on our guard.

As for the heat, the good news there is that we should see some decrease in high temps by mid-week and a return to relatively normal summer weather for Houston. Unfortunately, that dip is only from 100 to about 95 degrees, still with plenty of humidity and little rain in the forecast.

In probably 60 days or so, we'll have forgotten all about the heatwave and, fingers crossed, hurricane season as well. Until then, stay out of the heat and keep an eye on the tropics — just in case.