Plainview has felt the heat. Since last Sunday, the city has experienced temperatures above 38 degrees Celsius for ten days in a row.
Fortunately for Plainview residents, the end is in sight. Cooler temperatures are expected later this week, according to Charles Aldrich, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
However, Aldrich also said it can be difficult to predict exactly what will happen and when, so while temperatures are expected later this week, it’s not 100 percent guaranteed. It’s also nowhere near the hottest August the city has ever recorded. That distinction goes to the summer of 2011, when the average daily high was 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
Although the NWS says it’s too early to predict this month’s average, just looking at the monthly weather forecast, it’s very unlikely that it will be exceeded. Thunderstorms are expected in Plainview toward the end of the month, with some areas expecting over two inches of rainfall.
Rain has not been easy to come by in Plainview this summer. With the extremely high temperatures came a drought. The city has only had tiny amounts of rain here and there. The NWS monitoring station at the Plainview Herald recorded 0.05 inches of rainfall in Plainview for August on August 27. In July, the station recorded 1.67 inches of rainfall.
The summer of 2011 brought record temperatures and record droughts. While the summer of 2024 felt extreme, conditions in 2011 were even worse by comparison, Aldrich said.
“In 2011, there was only about 5.5 inches of rain,” Aldrich said. “So far since January, about 14.23 inches of rain have been reported.”
The measurements cited by Aldrich in this article come from a station at Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport.
