new figures from the office of the texas state climatologist at texas a&m university show that the lone star state just concluded its warmest end-of-summer on record according to data from the national centers for environmental information september was the warmest ever on record based on 125 years of data the average temperature in texas was 815 degrees 08 degrees warmer than the previous record set in 1911 of texas 254 counties 102 had their warmest september on record said dr john nielsen-gammon regents professor in the department of atmospheric sciences in the college of geosciences texas state climatologist and director of the texas center for climate studies three counties in the panhandle (hemphill lipscomb and moore) exceeded the 20th-century average september temperature by 76 degrees this comes on the heels of the second-warmest august on record surpassed only by august 2011 nielsen-gammon said in fact september was warmer than more than one-third of all prior augusts not surprisingly he added august-september combined was the warmest on record and july-september was second warmest the first decent cold front of the season was also late in arriving he said if we call the first day of fall weather the first day after aug 1 in which the minimum temperature is at least as cool as an average september day most of the state had its first fall day later than in any previous year of record-keeping nielsen-gammon added that in lubbock san antonio dallas college station houston brownsville and mcallen fall arrived more than a week later than in any previously recorded year in these locations and many others the first fall day wasnt until the second week of october while temperatures were high everywhere rainfall was unusually erratic even for texas nielsen-gammon said for example in the fort worth area four counties (tarrant hood parker and johnson) received an average of less than one-tenth of rain in september making it their driest september on record meanwhile tropical storm imelda helped jefferson liberty chambers and hardin counties in southeast texas to their wettest september on record each averaging more than 11 inches for the month the combination of hot weather everywhere and dry weather in much of the state led to a substantial worsening of short-term drought conditions he said at the end of july only about 4 percent of the state was in moderate drought conditions now almost half of the state is experiencing at least moderate drought and for almost 9 percent of the state the drought is extreme now that cold fronts have started arriving evaporative losses will decrease and there will be more opportunities for widespread rainfall he said with little sign of el niño developing in the tropical pacific ocean theres not much reason to expect unusual rainfall patterns this winter so drought conditions should improve in most areas nielsen-gammon added at this point texas temperatures have been running about 15 degrees to 2 degrees warmer than their 20th-century average he noted while this doesnt account for most of the unusual heat this past september it was enough to help it break the record by keith randall texas a&m university division of marketing & communications