A year of record warmth and not enough rain
AUSTIN (KXAN) -- The final numbers are out. To the surprise of very few, 2024 turned out to be the warmest year ever in Austin by 2.7°. The 72.7° mean temperature easily surpassed last year by one-half of a degree.
One of the reasons this number didn't catch us off guard is that 11 of the twelve months of records show only one month with a mean temperature below normal. That happened at the start of 2024 with January's mean temperature of 47.7° being 4.5° below normal.
The last three months of the year had the highest departure from the normal mean temperature. October was 6.5° warmer than the mean. December was 6.0° warmer and November was 5.0°.
One other footnote to 2024 being the warmest ever was the 32 days of triple-digit heat. Austin-Camp Mabry recorded 32 days where the high hit 100° and higher, starting on June 27. August had the highest number of highs at or above 100° with 16, including a record 109° on Aug. 21.
Finally, it's interesting to note that the Top 5 warmer years have occurred since 2011.
There was one in September and one in October. The 101° on Oct. 13 is the latest triple-digit high ever recorded at Camp Mabry.
In a warming, one must wonder if 2025 will hold the same fate.
2024 was another dry year with only 28.25" measured an astounding 8 inches below normal. The year did get off to a promising start with January's total of 6.07", 3.43" above normal.
April (+1.06"), May (+1.16") and July (+1.07") were the other three months with more rain than normal.
But the other eight months did not produce their normal rain, including five in a row from August to December.
The meteorological fall season is looked at as being the second wettest time of the year but it was anything but with a September-October-November cumulative deficit of 7.64".
This dry year continues to take a toll on the Central Texas drought. Many locations were out of the drought earlier in the year but the total lack of rain caused the drought to be moderate to severe in most locations, with an extreme drought reported on Dec. 31 extending from Manor to Austin southwestward to Blanco and most all of Hays County.