Back Talk Lakewood/East Dallas

Record Dallas temperatures? You bet

But not for the day’s high. We tied the record for highest minimum temperature for July 13 on Sunday, when the low was 82 degrees at DFW. The last July 13 that was that warm for the low was in 1954.

For those who aren’t keeping track: We’re almost four inches below normal for rain, and almost three inches since June 1. Which means that there is a reason all those lawns are getting crunchy.

By the numbers: We’ve had three days 100 or warmer this month, and eight for the year. That’s half the number of 100-degree days in an average summer, and nowhere near the record of 69, set in 1980.

The other record to watch: The record high minimum temperature for July is 80.8, set in 1998. We’re at 77.2, which is tied for seventh all-time with 1966.

Technorati Tags: Dallas weather,100-degree days,record temperatures,rainfall

Power out? It could be worse

TypePad might be back after a four-hour delay — as Jeff Seigel announced in the following post — but we are NOT up and running back at the Advocate Publishing mothership. At least we weren't when I left at 4-ish. That's when the battery in my laptop finally petered out. You see, we — along with a lot of our neighbors — lost power when the mid-morning storms hit. And, man ... was I bothered by the whole situation, at first. For one thing, this is production week — that week of the month the whole team works together (sharing an electricity generated server) to put next month's magazine together. It's the time of the month when stress levels are up and spare time is nonexistent. So we essentially lose a day.

It was only after leaving the office that things fell into perspective.

101 degrees in Dallas: So much for spring

Blame me. I wrote in May that we were enjoying a very seasonable spring. So what happened? We hyper heat into June.

Bleech. Yesterday's 101 at DFW was the first 100-degree day of the year, and it marked the 28th plus-90 reading in the past 29 days. The average temperatures for this time of year are 71 and 91, but we're at 77.7 and 96.9 so far this month. We even set a record on June 8 for lowest minimum temperature with 81.

And it looks like we're back in one of those periods of not enough rain. We were about normal in the middle of May; today, we're almost three inches behind normal. May is our wettest month of the year, but we had less than half the normal amount this year.

One other note: I saw a half dozen or so sprinklers running between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. last week, which violates the city's watering ordinance. That wastes water and doesn't do the lawn any good, either.

Technorati Tags: Dallas weather,100 degrees,heat wave,watering ordinance,lawn sprinklers

Spring weather that really is spring weather

This post was going to detail the surprisingly cool and pleasantly wet spring we've had, but when I looked up the monthly averages, I discovered we have not had a surprisingly cool and wet spring. We have had a normal spring.

The temperatures and rainfall for March, April and May are more or less average -- and May's temperature is right at it. And yesterday afternoon's high was almost 10 degrees cooler than normal.

Apparently, it has been so long since we had a spring with normal temperatures that we have forgotten what they felt like. Spring last year was the third warmest for minimum temperature since the weather service started keeping records in 1899. And who can forget 2006, with the record 101 on April 17 and the legendary statewide rolling blackout? The spring of 2006, in fact, is on the warmest on record.

Technorati Tags: Dallas weather,record temperatures,cool spring

Rebecca Miller to her fans at Back Talk: Thank you

Visitors here have been burning up the comment wires (if I can mix a metaphor) for our item last month about Channel 5, and the way it dumped weather forecaster Rebecca Miller. I passed our link along to her, and got this in return:

I truly appreciate all the kind words expressed by your readers.  ... Thank you so much for thinking enough of me to write.  It is very much appreciated.

We have had more than 55 comments on the four blogs. Normally, 10 is a good number for us. Guess Rebecca really did have a following.

Why are you watering the lawn when it's raining?

The city's seasonal water ordinance took effect this week, which restricts when people can water their grass. Which means it's time for my more or less annual plea for homeowners to turn off the sprinklers when it's raining.

In fact, even though it has rained off and on this week, with more rain forecast today and tomorrow, the sprinklers were on in full force this morning at six or eight houses in Ridgewood Park when I took my daily constitutional.

The one thing I can never figure out, tree-hugging aside, is why people waste money to water when we've had enough rain.

Yet another rainfall record

The National Weather Service says we had 2.35 inches of rain at DFW yesterday, which is the most ever for a March 18. The previous mark was 1.52 inches in 1984.

And that wasn't much, compared to other place. My neighbor at Lovers and Fisher said his rain gauge had more than five inches, and Love Field had 4 1/2 inches.

And, for everyone keeping score after last year's top 5 rainfall event (to paraphrase the weather types), we're about two inches ahead of normal and of last year's pace.

So long, Rebecca Miller

Friday morning update: Ed Bark has an email from Rebecca Miller, which more or less confirms what my friend noted yesterday: "When TV stations decide on changes, the public never knows the real reasons behind the change. Most times, neither do we."

Channel 5 announced yesterday that it wasn't renewing the contract of weather woman (and wine aficionado) Rebecca Miller. I am especially unhappy about this because she was one of the few weather types in town who played it straight. Miller didn't announce that every cold front was bringing with it THE STORM OF THE CENTURY!!!!

Since I long ago stopped trying to figure out why TV stations do what they do, I called a friend of mine who has been in the TV business for more than two decades, and has run a TV newsroom. Miller had been at Channel 5 since 1991 and was quite popular (Ed Bark's post linked to above has 49 comments, most of them favorable); she hardly seems like the kind of person to be let go.

My friend's take on what happened:

TV news directors, aren't you ashamed of yourselves?

I woke up this morning, and it was raining. Somehow, the ice storm of the century missed us.

So what did I see when I switched through the four local stations? Wintry blast! Winter weather closings! Freezing rain!

At best, this kind of reporting is silly. At worst, it's irresponsible. Can anyone who works for a TV station defend this foolishness? Or do you think your audience is really that stupid?

Because this is what bad winter weather really looks like:

Where is the blizzard of hype?

There is a tiny chance it will snow later in the week. Yet, when I ran through the forecasts for the four local TV stations, none of them had their WINTER STORM WARNING!! graphics up. Rebecca Miller at Channel 5 actually went out of her way to point out that the chance of bad weather was minimal.

I am deeply confused. Are the TV stations going to give up scaring us to death with the weather forecast? If so, does this mean they will actually start reporting news instead of crime, fires, and lost puppies?