When does it start cooling off for the Autumn season in Austin? (vs., garden)

[creepy]

today! ha! Nice weather this morning-huh!?


Some years it starts cooling off Sept. 1st, some later. Often it oscillates starting about Sept. October it gets cooler but then some days kinda hot. It always makes for a dilemma for Halloween for us, still too hot to wear a costume or no? We like to dress up even as adults, Have to choose alternate pieces in case it it is still hot!

[creepy]

[quote=Austin97;64175690]I would say end of october the mornings are usually quite cold and the afternoons are reliably comfortable.

"quite cold " hmm, I think you mean cool?

quite cold is about 40 degrees or less which does not happen here in October.

Love the cooler weather-enjoy!

[creepy]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

Memory is so odd, sometimes. I seem to recall it being cooler in September last year, but the history says it was 99 F on Sept 20, 2021, although it dropped to 94 and 85 the following two days.

Here is the average high (and low) along with a 25/75 percentile and 10/90 percentile shading:

It WAS cooler for sure-see it in the chart you provided, it was like Sept. 1st-got cooler suddenly-was super nice!

[rabbit33]

This year, autumn has been scheduled for November 3rd through 6th. Enjoy it!

[ScoPro]

…..

[riaelise]

I have to say I LOVE the morns and evenings and lower humidity!

It's not the temp, it's the humidity. 90 with less humidity isn't bad at all...

I'm wearing a long sleeve today yay!!!

still could use some more rain

[Need4Camaro]

Yea today was the first morning I didn't have to use the A/C in my car in a long time.

[Trainwreck20]

It felt wonderful this morning! I seem to recall that there 'used to be' a cold front that would move through in September and drop the temperatures significantly, and then quickly yield back to hot weather. So, I did a data dump on the September high temperatures from ABIA (so only back to 1996) and crunched them a bit. For the last four days of this month, I added in the forecast highs. While those might end up being slightly different, nothing dramatic is expected anyway, so not much impact.

It is worth noting that camp Mabry was the official location prior to 1996; however, since this is more comparative than anything, it doesn't really matter that they will be offset by a few degrees.

Also, the 'official' record for the books is taken at specific times, whereas the weather report usually reports the instantaneous high (or low), so the local weather people report values that tend to be a degree warmer (or cooler) than the official record, sometimes two degrees if the rounding happens to fall that way. I.e. Sept 22, 2022 was officially 97 F. (possibly as high as 97.4 F, but rounded to 97 F for the records). The instantaneous high was 98.1. The local news rounds that up (rather spuriously...) to 99 F. However, official NWS records should state 97 F.

The hottest average highs for the month:

1. 2019 - 97.1
2. 2011 - 96.2
3. 2005 - 96.0
4. 2000 - 94.4
5. 2022 - 92.8

Average for all of the 27 years is 90.6 F

The hottest maximum temperature for the month:
2000 - 111
2005 - 107
2 years at 102 (2011 & 1998)
4 years at 101 (2013, 2006, 2012, 2020)
2022 - tied at 18th (out of 27 years) at 97

Largest one day-drop in the high temp
I added this one to look for 'cold' fronts.
2022 has the smallest one-day drop - 5 degrees - between the 3rd and 4th (91 down to 86)
20 of the years have a 10 degree drop or larger

Daily highs below 80 F
Another 'cold' front check
20 years have at least one day below 80
8 of those 20 years are just one day
5 of those 20 years are four or more days below 80
2022 had 0

The minimum high temperature for the month
This is the coolest high temperature of the month

1. 2019 - 90
2. 2011 - 89
3. 2015 and 2022 - 86

Anyway, my take is that this September has not been brutally hot (highs ~2 F above average and the maximum high relatively low), there has been no relief - no cold front, no real 'snap' to the hot weather.

[ScoPro]

It is only 88 right now here.

[riaelise]

maybe that's the kicker and why 2022 is perceived as being the worst - there have been few days of relief. It has been "warmer than average" since the end of April. Not to mention hardly any rain.

That's a bad combination. We probably would have surpassed 2011 in terms of 100 degree days had we not gotten lucky for two weeks. However, the drought is resuming full blast, but is masked by the cooler temps.

From a gardener's standpoint, it isn't necessarily the constantly solar blast..its the drought.

And this summer in general, including September felt brutal to me. 97, 99, 100...is there a real difference in the feel? Natives probably say yes, I say absolutely not. Add in the humidity and it was miserable. Hopefully this won't be a mirage.