The local radio station has a segment on in the morning at 7:30 called “on this day in history” and one of his tidbits on a recent morning was about the scorching temperatures in 2011.
We’d had the conversation in my house a couple weeks ago when it was cool by August standards about how miserably hot 2011 was. I was home on maternity leave with my first son and remember spending entirely too much time in the house because it was so hot. Evidently my mom brain blocked out how dry it was too during that time.
I went to the National Weather Service website and found the Dodge City office information. It allows you to look up past weather and a quick search for precipitation gave me all the things I needed to know.
In 2011, Dodge City set the lowest precipitation recorded at 4.59 inches. We also broke the record for the most days where the recorded temp for the day was more than 100 degrees. That year there was 47. The previous record was set in 1934 with 42 days of more than 100 degree temps.
As of Aug. 28 of this year, the Dodge City office has observed 20.60 inches of precipitation. Normal for this time of year is 16.67 inches. The wettest year recorded was 1944 with 27.84 inches and the driest, of course was 2011.
This past weekend, Aug. 24 and 25 we had triple digit temps and admittedly, it was zero fun. I spent a lot of my time in the house and didn’t venture out until later in the evening. Don’t get me wrong, I like heat better than cold, but there’s a line I draw. Plus there was very little wind. I don’t mind hot if we have a breeze or a wind to spread out the heat a little bit. So far that pair of 106 recordings has been the highest for 2024.
Each morning, my husband turns on the local (Wichita) ABC television station. As I’m headed out the door Good Morning America comes on, and we get to listen to Ginger Zee push her climate change initiative and talk about how this city or this town are going to experience “record breaking” heat or torrential rain or some other weather anomaly.
It’s August. It’s going to be hot. Isn’t that what August became known for? The dog days of summer? Why is this news worthy? Why do they have to tell us every single morning it’s going to be hot? We’ve been completely spoiled this summer in my county. We haven’t had many days where it was more than 100 degrees, and that’s a welcome change. From my count it was only 8 days.
I’m going to enjoy these last few days of summer and warm temps where I can wear my shoes without any socks and pull on the shorts. I’m going to be thankful for the breeze and that pop-up thunderstorm that dropped a half inch of rain. I’m going to praise the Lord we still have green grass going into September. There’s always something to be thankful for.
