What a Wild Weather Year 2016 Was

People are welcome to believe whatever they please about global warming, but there’s one weather record there’s no disputing – La Grange area residents have just experienced the two wettest years in recorded weather history back to back.

The National Weather Service record in La Grange goes back to 1910.

Long term average: 38.42 inches
2016 actual: 62.18 inches
2015 actual: 60.08 inches

That’s 62 percent over the average last year and 56 percent over average in 2015.

Ironically, there were two mini-droughts in July and October last year which required the county to implement short term burn bans.

By the way, the Flatonia weather station, which goes back a little further to 1908, registered a long term record of 68.74 inches in 1919.

Looking a the figures below, it is clear that the two years prior to 2015 were more in line with the long term average for rainfall in the middle of the county.

2014 – 34.52 inches
2013 – 32.60 inches

With two consecutive years of rainfall statistical outliers, the safe bet would seem to be a “reversion to the mean,” or a return to rainfall amounts more in line with the 107-year average of 38.42 inches.

Interestingly the Texas A&M weather statistics used in the Texas Almanac which go back to 1940 show annual average rainfall of 40.40 inches.

That would seem to indicate that over the last 40-50 years, the local climate is trending about two inches per year wetter.