Triple Digits in September?

It was rather unusual to see a triple digit temperature to start off the month of September. We hit 100 degrees Sunday, September 6th with 100 degrees. September is not a month where we typically see extreme heat.

David Novlan, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Santa Teresa, noted that since 1879 El Paso has only seen 30 triple digit days for the month of September, including this month! Typically the month is known for saying goodbye to blazing heat. I did notice that the most triple digit days for the month peaked out at four for only three times over our record keeping history. By the way, the latest occurrence of having a triple digit temperature this time of year was September 16, 1956.
The latest computer model from the Climate Prediction Center anticipates September as having an “equal chance” of seeing above normal, normal or below normal temperatures. It will be interesting to see how the rest of the month pans out.

MONTHLY FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTION OF TRIPLE DIGITS
(NUMBER PER MONTH AND PERCENTAGE )
MAY JUNE JULY AUGUST SEPTEMBER
63 875 708 257 27
3.3% 45.3% 36.7% 13.3% 1.4%

Data courtesy of the NWS – El Paso.