EAST TEXAS — As we get ready to end 2018, and say hello to 2019, it is worth looking back at all the weather trends that we have seen in 2018. From above normal temperatures, to drought and flooding rains, and even tornadoes, 2018 had a bit of everything, so let's take a look!
Temperatures:
You likely remember the weather we had to deal with starting off 2018, as snow and ice took over East Texas. However, temps below normal would be a fleeting trend in 2018. While January would start us off below normal, that quickly changed as we went through the months. In fact just 3 months of 2018 were below normal with their temperatures, and the other 9 were above normal. Some of these months, including June, May, and March, were more than 5 degrees above the average temperatures for those time periods. See the full chart below.
Rainfall:
2018 was a year of extremes in East Texas for rainfall. We started the year with just 42% of our normal rainfall in January, but then quickly spiked to 207% of what we should have in February. This pattern then swung back the other direction, as drought took over during the summer. This includes the month of May, where we only saw 19% of the total rainfall we should expect during the month. Like a pendulum, this pattern again swung hard in the other direction come October, as a massive 270% of our monthly rainfall amount fell. This actually set a new monthly rainfall record for Tyler in October, as we saw over 13 inches of rainfall for the month.
Severe Weather:
Thankfully, due in part to little precipitation during peak severe weather season, severe weather was fairly quiet around East Texas this year. In fact, even though we had several rounds of storms, only 5 tornadoes were confirmed in the CBS 19 viewing area during 2018. This included 3 EF-0 tornadoes and 2 EF-1 tornadoes. We have listed them below.
- 1/22/2018 EF-0 Tornado in Hopkins County NW of Winnsboro.
- 4/13/2018 EF-1 Tornado in Gregg County ENE of East Mountain.
- 4/13/2018 EF-0 Tornado in Harrison County SSW of Waskom.
- 10/13/2018 EF-0 Tornado in Panola County SW of Beckville.
- 10/31/2018 EF-1 Tornado in Nacogdoches County SW of Cushing.
In fact it was a fairly quiet year all around the country when it came to tornadoes. We saw 991 tornadoes in 2018 as of December 30th, which was well below the average of 1297 for a given year. Also, rather incredibly, we only saw 10 deaths from tornadoes across the country in 2018, which is the lowest number ever reported since records have been kept. Also, of the tornadoes that did form, no violent EF-4 or EF-5 tornadoes hit the US in 2018, with our strongest storms of the year only producing EF-3 tornadoes.
The Forecast:
As we head into 2019 we can't forecast our severe weather chances for the year this far out, but we can take a look at the temperatures and the rainfall for the next few months. Forecasters at the Climate Prediction Center (CPC), a department of The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA), have forecasted equal chances for East Texas to see above or below normal temperatures in the next 3 months. These forecasters are also predicting a 30% to 40% chance that we will see above normal rainfall for this same time period. See their forecasts below.
While we may not know all 2019 has in store for us from mother nature, we do know one thing for sure. The CBS 19 weather team will be right here to get your through it! Whether morning, noon, or night, CBS 19 has you covered!
-- Meteorologist Michael Behrens
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