Austin, Texas, enduring record heat

AUSTIN, Texas, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- The city of Austin, Texas, has already endured its hottest summer on record and is approaching a record number of 100-degree days, a meteorologist says.

Lower Colorado River Authority meteorologist Bob Rose said Austin has already accumulated 67 days with temperatures of at least 100 degrees this summer, well above the annual average of 12 triple-digit days, The Austin (Texas) American-Statesman said Sunday.

"Right now, we're warmer even than we were in the drought years of the 1950s," Rose said of the heat wave that has Austin approaching the record of 69 triple-digit days. "I don't know that it necessarily means we're in trouble, but it speaks to the severity" of the weather.

The National Weather Service said the average temperature this summer has been 88.6 degrees, including an 89.5 degrees average for July.

State climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon told the American-Statesman the hot temperatures in Austin and the rest of Central Texas may be due to increased heating by the sun because of a lack of moisture in regional soil. The lack of soil moisture is due to two years of severe droughts in Central Texas.