Heat in Coastal Cameron, Texas

Temperatures reaching just below 100 degrees, combined with high humidity left behind from earlier week rainfall, allowed heat index to rise to or above 111 by early afternoon in coastal Cameron County, peaking at 116F at 2:53 PM CDT at the Cameron County Airport near Bayview. The general range was 111 to 114 degrees; the 119.7 value was just for a short while at Brownsville/South Padre Int'l Airport.

As developing Tropical Storm Arthur moved along the middle Texas coast (June 17) and as a degenerated low pressure system along the Louisiana Coast (June 18), very hot air descended on the southern tip of Texas, with record extreme heat index, or feels-like, temperatures for the entire region on the 18th. The high heat index values held on into June 19th, before unsettled weather brought slightly lower temperatures and pockets of rain by the 20th, which ended the short but brutal window of extreme heat.