September 10, 2012 (Monday)
Saturday’s high temperature was a record for Corpus Christi, where the reading was 104 degrees. Then a cool front came through and the temperature in Rockport was 83 yesterday afternoon. Although the drop in temperatures was not spectacular, it was well received. First day in quite a while since cooler weather made any kind of appearance in this area. The temperature this morning is in the low 70’s.
Weather can change dramatically and suddenly. I recall one December afternoon in 1953 in Fort Worth when I saw the headline on a Fort Worth Star Telegram about a blizzard headed in our direction from West Texas. The article described severely cold weather with ice and snow that was already being seen west of town. It was hard to believe, for when I saw that paper on a newspaper rack that sunny afternoon, the temperature was probably in the 80’s. By the time I got off work around 5:00 p.m. that day, the wind had shifted to the north with strong gusts, and by the time I got home from work, snow filled the air. Talk about sudden change!
When the cool front came through South Texas yesterday, there was thunder in Rockport, but no rain. So far, September as been a dry month. That’s not good news, because the wettest month of the year, on average, in this part of the state, is September. In some years, that means a tropical weather system of some kind has visited us with copious amounts of precipitation. There are three disturbances in the Atlantic, two of them named storms, as this is being written. They are all headed in a direction away from us, promising rain for the ocean, but not the drought areas of our country. A change to wet weather could come to us before September is over–for that change we will hope and to that end we will pray.