It's Officially the Hottest Summer Ever

It's official. The summer of 1980 is no longer the hottest on record in North Texas.

After a run of more than 30 years, the legacy of the "Summer of '80" died just before 1 p.m. Tuesday when the temperature reached 100 degrees at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport for the 70th time this season.

The previous record of 69 days, set in 1980 of course, was tied on Monday.

A high of 100 is forecast for Wednesday, so we may set a heat record again tomorrow. To further solidify the position of the hottest summer on record, the summer of 2011 beat the average temperature of 1980 by more than a degree when the average temperature was 89.2 degrees; in 2011 it was 90.5.

Wednesday evening a cold front is expected to bring a little relief while dropping the highs into the high-80s and low-90s for the remainder of the week. With the last day of summer on Sept. 23, that may be it for triple-digit days this year.

After such a brutally hot summer, it's nice to set a new record for something after our string of consecutive days over 100 was cut short at 40 -- just two days short of setting a new record -- and leaving many North Texans feeling as if suffering through all of the heat were for naught. At least now there's something to show for it.

What's that? You're tired of the heat and don't care about any records? You may not think fondly of it now, but a couple of summer's from now on some sticky June evening I just bet you'll be heard waxing poetic, uttering something along the lines of, "It's warm, but nothing like the summer of '11! Remember that?" I just bet you will.

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