The Year in Texas Weather: Warm, Not Enough Rain, and Filled With Disaster

Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images)

2012 could end up being the warmest year in Texas since record-keeping began.

It’s time for our look back at the year in Texas weather for 2012. Although it was a time of improved precipitation for the state, Texas was still struggling to recover from its driest one-year period ever in 2011, and “improved” just wasn’t enough to bring the state back from drought in 2012. It was also an abnormally warm year, perhaps the warmest ever in Texas, and one filled with natural disasters that did billions of dollars in damage.

Likely Warmest Year Ever

Anyone that lived through the summer of 2011 in Texas will likely be surprised to hear that 2012 was actually warmer. Overall, it could be the warmest year in state history. As State Climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon notes in a recent article, 2011 actually had some cooler-than-normal months (though none in the relentless summer), but in 2012, he writes, “eleven of twelve months recorded above-normal temperature, with October being the sole exception.”  While the numbers are still being crunched, 2012 will either be the warmest or second-warmest year ever in Texas. It’s competition? 1921. In “distant third,” Nielsen-Gammon says, is 2011.

And yes, the warming is part of a longer trend, with an increase of 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit in average temperatures since the 1970s, he notes.

Not Enough Rain

For a while there, 2012 was looking to be a decent year for rainfall, as the state was slightly above average going into September. But as Nielsen-Gammon notes, things then got very, very dry. “The final three months of 2012 were the third-driest October-December on record for Texas,” he writes. Combined with 2011, it made for the fourth-driest two-year period on record, Nielsen-Gammon notes. And the state’s reservoirs remain at a deficit — Texas needs a 20 percent increase in lake and reservoir levels to return to normal, he writes, “and that doesn’t seem likely” given higher-than-normal temperatures and just average rainfall.

Billion-Dollar Disasters

There were five billion-dollar natural disasters that hit Texas in 2012, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In the first days of April, 22 tornadoes struck Dallas-Fort Worth, causing serious hail damage and destruction from high winds. More tornadoes followed later in the month, and in May and June. June also saw a hail storm that caused severe damage in Texas. And for some farmers, the drought continued in parts of the state, leading to losses in cotton crops.

And curious how 2012 stacks up to 2011? Read our round-up of last year’s weather here.