> Our hottest May in history gets much worse next week
> What we have seen so far in the month of May is nothing short of extraordinary. When you take the average temperature (morning lows & afternoon highs) in Austin through the first 11 days of the month, you get 82.2 degrees. That is 1.6 degrees higher than the next hottest May on the list, 2018. I know that doesn't sound like much, but that is a significant margin when looking at multi-day averages. Unfortunately, our lead will only increase with the third week of May likely to shatter numerous records across the state of Texas.
> May 2022 is our hottest May in history through the first 11 days.
> First, WHY have we been so hot so early in the year? It has been the perfect storm of ingredients including a La Nina phase of the El Nino Southern Oscillation, our worst drought in seven years, and finally a very early showing of a ridge of high pressure that has been stubborn over the southern U.S. High pressure consists of sinking air in the lower and middle levels of the atmosphere, and physics dictates that when air sinks, it compresses, and compressed air is hotter.
> Now, onto the forecast for the next 7 to 10 days in Texas. The ridge of high pressure is in the process of reorganizing and intensifying over Mexico, and it will return to Texas as early as this weekend. It won't be in a hurry to leave either with this sinking air situated over the state through all of next week.
> In Austin, that gets us to the upper 90s as early as Saturday and near/above 100 by Sunday and Monday. Hitting 100 this early in the year is highly unusual with this marking our third earliest trip to triple digits in Austin's recorded history. We could push even higher though through the second half of next week.
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