As the scorching sun seeped through the trees Wednesday morning, sweat pooled on landscaper Tomas Aquayo’s brow.
Aquayo has about had it with the triple-digit heat, which was expected to grip North Texas for a ninth consecutive day. The National Weather Service predicted a high of 105 degrees July 19.
“I’m ready for it to go away,” Aquayo says, while working in the yard of a North Dallas home.
Unfortunately, nine days of 100-degree heat is nothing special in North Texas.
Recall the summer of 1980, when 69 days – 42 of them in a row – hit 100 degrees or more. Two of those were a record 113 degrees.
“This pales in comparison,” says Dave Martin, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service.
So far, 11 days in 2006 have reached the magic 100-degree number. The hottest day of the year was July 18, when 107 degrees was recorded at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, the region’s official recording station.
Meteorologists have blamed the heat on an upper-level ridge, and Martin says there is nothing predictable or cyclical about hot summers.
“It’s summertime. High pressure is sitting on us. That’s it,” he says. “Some summers are hotter than others. It goes up and then back down.”
The summer of 1998 was another hot one, with 56 days of 100-degree heat, 29 of them consecutive, Martin says. In 2000, 46 days of triple-digit heat were recorded.
On average, North Texans experience 100-degree heat about 16 days a year, arriving as early as March 9 and as late as Oct. 3.