Copyright 2005 The Austin American Statesman
Warm weather is sticking around
By MIGUEL LISCANO
Austin American-Statesman (Texas)
Extreme drought, grass fires and warm afternoons at the park: It’s a Central Texas winter wonderland.
Austin temperatures hit 81 degrees Monday afternoon, surpassing by 2 degrees the previous record for the date at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport that was set in 1988.
The warm and dry conditions are part of a dry weather pattern that started a year ago.
It featured a higher than normal number of sunny days through the fall, said Robert Blaha, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
And the weather is not moving out any time soon.
“We’re not expecting rain for at least another week or so,” said Marianne Sutton, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
The western part of the United States is seeing some of the same warm weather, Sutton said. Denver saw a high of 61 on Monday, not normal for the Mile High City.
For Central Texas, the warm weather is nothing new.
Austin’s record high for Dec. 25 was 91 degrees in 1955. This year, Christmas Day tempera- tures did not top 76 degrees at the airport.
“It’s Austin; you sort of expect it. There is no unseasonable weather,” Lloyd Thompson said Monday afternoon at Auditorium Shores, where he and his wife, Penny, had taken their dog.
Penny Thompson walked barefoot, while others threw a flying disc and ran around in shorts.
Lloyd Thompson said he went to high school and college in Indiana before moving to Austin a few years ago.
“Oh, it’s frigid there,” he said. “Twenties, 30s, icy roads. It’s funny to call people there, and they hear birds in the background.
“I’ve had people hang up on me,” Thompson said.
Austin is going through a drought that meteorologists consider extreme.
That means there is a significant fire danger throughout the area, Sutton said.
Less than 22 inches of rain has fallen this year at the airport, almost a foot below the average, according to the weather service.
In response, Travis, Hays and Williamson counties have forbidden burning and restricted fireworks sales to try to control the blazes.
Still, a rash of grass fires has swept through pockets of Central Texas in the past few days.
On Saturday, firefighters battled a blaze that spread over about 200 acres in northeastern Travis County east of Interstate 35, Austin Fire Department Capt. Rob Bredahl said.
Firefighters in Manor on Sunday battled a 15-acre grass fire for three hours before bringing it under control.
On Monday, another 2-acre grass fire broke out near U.S. 290 east of FM 973 in Manor.
Also Monday, Bastrop County firefighters battled a 20-acre grass fire along Watts Lane near Cedar Creek that burned into the night.
In Austin, the weather conditions probably have contributed to 54 grass or brush fires in the past week, Bredahl said.
During the same period last year, he said, the Fire Department responded to 11 calls.
“It’s just been so dry,” Bredahl said. “It’s been windy, and there’s an abundance of fireworks out there.
Put those three things together, and it’s a bad combination,” he said.