Does Today's 100° Tell Us Anything About This Winter?

CBS11 Chief Meteorologist Larry Mowry posted earlier today about the rarity of hitting 100° this late in the year.

When we go back into the record book and look at the only three other times we hit 100° later in the season, does this give us a clue as to how hot or cold the following winter will be?

Possibly.

The three other years we hit 100° later than September 29th are 1951, 1979, and 1938.  What's interesting to note is that none of these years was in the top ten for hottest summers (June-July-August).

Now when we look at the subsequent winters in each of these years, nothing shows up in the top ten for the winter of 1938 or 1979.  But check out the winter of 1951-52.  That winter (December-January-February) had the highest average maximum temperature and the 3rd highest average temperature.
It was also the 5th driest winter on record in 1951-52.  This was on the front end of the worst, longest drought in Texas history.

This year, we are in a major drought and we just wrapped up the hottest summer on record.  Also, La Niña is returning and strengthening as we head into the latter part of this year.  This does not bode well for much rain for North Texas.

So even though there is no clear evidence that hitting 100° this late in the year means that the winter will be warm, let's hope that we don't repeat the winter of '51 which did end up being quite warm and dry.