DALLAS — Finally -- mercifully! -- 2022 is almost at its end.
So let's take stock of it from a weather perspective, shall we?
First, a quick summary of the year's numbers here in North Texas:
- Our annual rainfall was 36.63", which is very close to the normal of 37.01".
- Our average annual temperature for the year is just over 68° -- and that doesn't include the warm weather we're expecting on this, the year's final weekend. That forthcoming warm-up notwithstanding, 2022 currently stands as the 10th warmest year on record.
- Our coldest temperatures of the year came very recently -- lows of 11° on December 22 and 23.
- Our hottest temperatures of the year came on July 18, 19 and 20, when we hit 109° three days in a row.
After the cold stretch that we faced in December, it's tough to even remember that, just a few months ago, we were all miserably working through what felt like an endless stretch of 100° heat.
Actually, in this look back at the weather year that was, let's start there.
Summer Highs
Easily the weather headline of 2022? We had record stretches of dry weather, rain and heat this year.
First off, how dry was it?
Well, we saw the second-longest stretch of rain-free days on record at DFW International Airport this summer -- 67 total days with zero measurable rain.
You'd think that spending nearly the entire summer with zero rain would put this summer near the top for driest on record, right? Wrong! Our precipitation count saw a dramatic turnaround in the final weeks -- and, shockingly, the record books will show 2022 as the ninth wettest summer on record.
It's all thanks to the huge, flooding rain we saw in August. Between August 21 and 22, a heavy rain event dropped over 9" of rain at DFW. That led August 2022 becoming the wettest August on record!
Oh, and the heat...
The summer of 2022 was blistering hot. I've collected some of the key stats from this past summer. Check them out:
Severe Weather & Tornadoes
Like every year, North Texas saw its fair share of severe weather events and tornadoes in 2022.
An interesting thing, however: There were NO tornado reports in all of North Texas during the month of May. That's only happened 10 other times since 1950!
In total, there were 40 tornadoes reported in North Texas this year -- a count that includes the recent December 13th outbreak, which saw 16 tornadoes touching down around the region.
The strongest tornado Dallas saw in 2022 was rated an EF-4. That one touched down in Lamar County on November 4, and it had winds of 170+ MPH.
Winter Weather
The arctic blast pre-Christmas is likely the most memorable dose of winter for the year, but that event mainly just brought cold, and not much snow.
Areas west of Dallas-Fort Worth did see a coating of light snow, but most areas saw nothing more than flurries.
While it wasn't record cold, it was the coldest weather North Texas has seen since the big freeze of 2021. At its worst, the temp dropped to 11° in D-FW and the wind chill was as low as -9°.
Recency bias likely has most people remembering the Christmas cold snap as the most wintry event of 2022 -- but, don't forget, we did see over 1.5" of snow back in February.
A strong cold front swept through the area, bringing officially 1.7" of snow to D-FW on February 2 and 3. While it was not as cold as Christmas at the end of the year (the lowest temp was 19°), that added precipitation brought icy street conditions we didn't have to deal with at the cold spell we just endured at year's end.
What's in store for 2023?
Well, it's obviously too soon for anything super specific!
But we do see current La Niña conditions transitioning to ENSO neutral status for the spring, and while there's not a lot of deep research on what that means for severe weather season here in North Texas, some indications point to a slightly more active spring.
Time will tell!
In the meantime, let's just cheers to lots of nice weather in 2023.
