CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — This June has been a flamethrower in Corpus Christi. June 1 marks the beginning of hurricane season, the beginning of meteorological summer, and is generally when the heat and humidity are here to stay for the duration of summer.
This June has been wildly hot -- even for Corpus Christi's standards. Through June 28, Corpus Christi's average temperature for the month is very close to the hottest June on record. June 2013 had an average temperature of 86.8 degrees. Through June 28, the average temperature in 2023 is 86.6 degrees.
So, June 2013 vs. June 2013 seem to be fairly similar with respect to air temperatures, but that's only part of the picture. We deal with high heat index values quite often in the Coastal Bend and when you factor that in, the two Junes are quite different.
June 2023 has been oppressively humid. We observed a dew point of 83 degrees on June 17, which skyrocketed the heat index to 125 degrees that afternoon. A heat index of 125 is the highest heat index EVER on record in Corpus Christi. Just a wildly hot number.
Overall, the humidity in 2023 has been notably higher than it was in 2013 with the average dew point running nearly 5 degrees higher. That doesn't sound like a lot, but when you use the humidity to calculate how it has felt outside, you get a significant difference.
June 2023 has had an average max heat index of 112.4 degrees, which is nearly 10 degrees higher than 2013's average max heat index of 103.5 degrees. The difference between these two numbers is a direct result of higher humidity levels in 2023.
Moving forward, hopefully this trend does not persist through the remainder of Summer 2023, because if it does, we are in for a very long and hot summer.