WET 2007 GETS EVEN WETTER

Posted: Wednesday, Jul 25, 2007 - 03:01:27 pm CDT

Rains this week around the Fredericksburg area only served to make 2007 all the more a record year in terms of accumulated moisture.

Through Tuesday, 4.95 inches of rain had been measured over the past week at Lady Bird Johnson Municipal Park where the City of Fredericksburg has its official weather station.

That weekly total brings to 6.94 inches the total for July, while for the year the park rain gauge has recorded a January-July accumulation of 36.75 inches.

That total is more than double the 16.07 inches recorded here by this time in 2006 while also doubling the 16.22 inches that usually are accumulated in Fredericksburg through the end of July.

For more than a month, Fredericksburg’s unusually wet 2007 has been setting records, according to rainfall record-keeping begun by the Fredericksburg Standard-Radio Post in 1962.

Those records show that at no time over the past 45 years has the city come anywhere close to matching this year’s seven-month total of 36.75 inches.

The next-highest total for the January-July period was in 1992 when 29.30 inches were measured by this time of the year. Next-highest was 1997 when 29.18 inches were accumulated through the first seven months.

Meanwhile, often lost in this year’s preoccupation with moisture is the fact that the first seven months of 2007 have also been among the coolest ever recorded here.

So far in 2007, there have only been 23 days in which the temperatures have reached 90 degrees or higher, with the highest daily reading being only 93 degrees on three different dates.

By comparison, a year ago by the end of July, the city’s park thermometer had recorded 70 days in which the mercury hit 90 degrees or warmer. That included a 25-day period from July 7-31 in which the mercury reached 90 degrees or warmer each day.

The warmest readings by this time in 2006 were 102 degrees on July 18, 101 degrees on July 17 and identical 100-degree readings on April 17-18.

Last year’s first 90-degree reading occurred on April 7 -- much earlier than 2007’s first 90-degree report which did not occur until almost two months later on May 30.

High water Tuesday prompted City of Fredericksburg Street Department crews to put up low-water crossing barriers at several locations around town, including one in the 300 block of North Edison and two on West Schubert on either side of North Milam.

The city also blocked off a section of South Bowie Street near the Postoak Road intersection due to high water in Baron’s Creek where a large tree had to be removed after drifting downstream and damming up rainfall runoff.

Around the county, high runoff prompted the Texas Department of Transportation to also put out a low-water crossing barrier north of town at Willow Creek on RM 1631.

However, TxDOT did not need to close any roadways due to high water.