DFW Airport runs 4.1°F warmer than normal over the past year

North Texas just finished a hot, dry year. At DFW Airport, monthly temperatures from October 2025 through September 2026 averaged 4.1°F above the 1991–2020 normal.

The heat was not a passing spell. 10 months in that stretch came in warmer than normal, from late fall through the start of this autumn.

Rain fell short. The airport gauge caught 31.0 inches over those months, compared with a normal of 38.3 inches. That leaves the year at -7.3 inches against normal.

For anyone who pays a power bill, waters a lawn or keeps an eye on the creek out back, those gaps matter. They show the past year was not just a feeling. It sat well outside what counts as typical here.

The weather service's daily climate report for the airport lists its normal period as 1991 to 2020 (tgftp.nws.noaa.gov). A normal is the average for a given month across those years. A departure is how far a month landed above or below it.

The biggest heat gaps: late winter, early spring and September

September 2026 posted the largest temperature gap of the year. It ranked 1st, at 8.4°F above normal.

March 2026 ranked 2nd, at 8.3°F above normal. February 2026 was close behind at 7.9°F.

Warm stretches in February and March are easy to miss. Nobody sweats through a mild late-winter afternoon. But by this measure, those months ran nearly as far above normal as the end of summer did.

The year did have a cool spot. January 2026 came in at -0.8°F against normal, the coolest month relative to its baseline. That small dip was the exception, not the pattern.

August 2026 averaged 91.6°F at the airport. That figure blends daytime highs and overnight lows across the whole month. It is the kind of average that shows up in how long air conditioners run after dark.

A dry year with a wet spring in the middle

Rainfall swung harder than temperature did. December 2025 finished at -3.2 inches against its normal, a deep shortfall heading into winter.

Late summer was drier still in plain terms. August 2026 recorded 0.0 inches of rain at DFW Airport. September 2026 followed at -3.0 inches against its normal.

Put together, the airport went through the hottest weeks of the year and into early fall with very little rain. That is the stretch when lawns, gardens and foundations in North Texas clay soil feel it most.

Spring was the exception. April 2026 ran 2.6 inches above its normal, the wet month in an otherwise dry run.

That wet April was not enough to close the gap. Even with it, the year still ended at -7.3 inches against normal, with 31.0 inches measured instead of the expected 38.3 inches.

What the numbers can and can't tell you

These are airport readings, not a map of every backyard. Rain especially can land unevenly across the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. An airport gauge cannot show how much fell in Oak Cliff, Plano or Arlington.

Still, the weather service keeps a climate record for the area that runs far longer than the normal period (tgftp.nws.noaa.gov). This story compares months to the 1991–2020 normal, not to that full record. So it does not say whether any month set a record.

The data also does not explain why the year ran warm and dry. It shows how far each month landed from normal. Questions of cause belong to forecasters and climate scientists, and this report does not answer them.

Residents can hold these figures up against their own year. Look at last winter's heating bills, this summer's electric bills and how often the sprinklers ran. The airport numbers give a fixed yardstick to measure that experience against.

The figures also cover only DFW Airport. They do not include Houston, San Antonio or other peer metros, or statewide and national averages. A wider comparison would take separate data from those stations.

October is the next test. Once the month closes on Oct. 31, the weather service's monthly climate summary will show whether the warm, dry pattern carried into fall.

Watch the rain column most closely. After a bone-dry August and a short September, the region heads into the cooler months behind on rainfall. Whether fall storms make up that ground will shape how the Metroplex starts 2027.

How we did this

We used National Weather Service monthly climate data for DFW Airport from October 2025 through September 2026 and compared each month's average temperature and total rainfall with its 1991–2020 normal. The yearly temperature figure, 4.1°F, is the average of the monthly departures. The rainfall comparison sets the total of 31.0 inches against the sum of monthly normals, 38.3 inches.

Normal: the average temperature or rainfall for a given month at DFW Airport across 1991 to 2020. Departure: how far a month's actual temperature or rainfall landed above or below its normal. A negative number means cooler or drier than normal. Average monthly temperature: the average of each day's high and low temperature across the month. Precipitation: rain plus the water content of any snow, sleet or hail, measured in inches.

Limitations

• Recent monthly figures may be preliminary and can be revised slightly after the weather service completes quality checks.
• All figures come from the DFW Airport station. Temperature and especially rainfall can differ in other parts of North Texas.
• This report compares months with the 1991–2020 normal, not with the full climate record, so it does not say whether any month set a record.
• The data shows how far each month departed from normal. It does not show why.
• No comparable figures for Texas, the U.S. or peer metros such as Houston or San Antonio were included in this analysis.

Sources

• NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information: Monthly weather summary (Global Summary of the Month): USW00013960, latest period September 2026; retrieved Oct. 13, 2026. Data
• NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information: Monthly climate normals, 1991–2020: USW00013960 (1991–2020 U.S. Climate Normals), latest period 2020; retrieved Oct. 13, 2026. Data