Photo by Hans Reniers on Unsplash
Audio By Carbonatix
Three-ish weeks back, a world-famous groundhog foretold that spring would come early this year. Perhaps he’d actually meant to predict a premature summer.
Monday temperatures in Dallas-Fort Worth are expected to smash heat records as weather forecasters are warning of a 93-degree high.
Um, what? We’re sorry, but that is not OK.
Ever since Winter Storm Uri pummelled the state in 2021, the word “February” brings up terrible memories of freezing in living rooms in electricity-deprived homes. So, forgive us if news of a 90-plus-degree day this month has us feeling a bit shook.
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“DFW High: 93°,” WFAA’s Pete Delkus, AKA the nation’s top meteorologist, wrote Monday morning on X. “For the 10th time in recorded history, DFW will reach the 90s in February. It will be the 7th earliest 90° day. On average, the first 90° day lands on April 19th. It’ll also be a record high temp for the day.”
Ugh. We only just got over having to process the most infernal summer in recent memory. Couldn’t Mother Nature have cut us a longer break from the bowels of hell?
To make things even more diabolical, certain areas are feeling the heat in another way: fire threats.
“High temperatures 20 to 30 degrees above normal are in store for much of North and Central Texas,” the National Weather Service in Fort Worth wrote in an infographic on X. “Hot, dry, and breezy conditions will create an elevated threat for grass fires.”
Record heat is expected through Monday and even into Tuesday as dry and breezy conditions lead to elevated fire weather concerns. #dfwwx #texomawx #ctxwx pic.twitter.com/cnJoljxhDR
— NWS Fort Worth (@NWSFortWorth) February 26, 2024
The weather service added that much of the region may see record-melting temps on Tuesday as well.
Despite this, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported late last week that it’s still too soon to officially declare that the winter is over.
Like countless other North Texans, Delkus is expressing dismay at the region’s capricious weather.
“North Texas invited all the seasons this week!” he wrote Monday morning on X. “Record heat to start the week and much cooler to end the month! There will be a forty-degree temp from Monday’s high to Thursday’s high.”
North Texas invited all the seasons this week!
— Pete Delkus (@wfaaweather) February 26, 2024
Record heat to start the week and much cooler to end the month!
There will be a forty-degree temp from Monday's high to Thursday's high. #wfaaweather pic.twitter.com/ejutXi3Lsd
The highs this week start out as summery as they come: 93 degrees on Monday and 88 on Tuesday. Father Winter then promptly returns to dole out more shivers.
Wednesday’s high is expected to hover around 54 degrees and Thursday will likely see a high of 53. Next comes the spring: Friday might witness a high of 72 degrees and Saturday could bring 80.
Delkus expertly framed it this way in a Sunday night post: “I feel like I’m just making stuff up at this point. Here, pretend any of this makes sense.”
