by Diego Mendoza-Moyers, El Paso Matters
June 6, 2024
With the summer heat well upon El Paso and two days of triple-digit heat in the forecast for this week, here are six things to know about the summer weather El Paso
How hot has 2024 in El Paso been?
Since Jan. 1, El Paso’s temperature has averaged 62 degrees, just over 2 degrees hotter than the “normal” – or the 30-year average temperatures that the city experienced between 1991 through 2020. And this May was especially hot in El Paso, where temperatures averaged 79.5 degrees, which was 4 degrees warmer than usual for the month, according to the National Weather Service. The city experienced its first day of 100-degree heat this year May 28.
Days in May have gotten hotter in El Paso over time, according to NWS data. Between 1903 and 1950, there wasn’t a single day of triple digit heat recorded in El Paso during the month of May.
And in the century spanning 1900 through 1999, there were 25 days in May that topped 100 degrees in El Paso. Over the last 25 years, however, El Paso has seen 31 days of triple-digit heat during the month of May, according to the NWS.
The intense summer heat has been especially deadly in Texas in recent years. Since 1996, 450 people in Texas have died of heat-related causes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But just in 2022 and 2023, there were 109 heat-related fatalities in Texas.
How dry has it been in El Paso this year?
Very dry, but not unprecedented. El Paso has seen just 0.81 inches of rain this year as of June 3, less than half of the 1.68 inches of rain the city usually receives by this time of year. Even so, El Paso has seen more rainfall so far in 2024 than at this time compared with each of the last two years; the city received 0.8 inches of rain by early June of last year, and 0.7 inches at this time in 2022.
Throughout all of 2023 – the hottest year on record in El Paso – the city received 4.34 inches of rain, compared with the historical average of about 9 inches of annual precipitation.
So El Paso is in a drought, and it’s hotter here than usual so far this year. What does that mean for the city’s water supply?
City-owned El Paso Water is likely to maintain a stable supply of water through the summer, regardless of the rainfall the city receives this year.
The water utility said it expects to receive more water from the Rio Grande – released from Elephant Butte – this year than in any year since 2009, thanks to high levels of snowpack in the mountains near southern Colorado that feed the river. In 2023, the Rio Grande supplied about 12.5 billion gallons of water – 31% of the city’s supply that year. And in 2022, the Rio Grande supplied 6.7 billion gallons, just 17% of the water El Pasoans used amid intense drought that year.
In 2024, the river may ultimately supply closer to half of the roughly 40 billion gallons that El Paso Water customers will likely use this year.
The more water El Paso Water can draw from the Rio Grande, the less it has to pump from the Mesilla Bolson aquifer beneath the Westside and from the Hueco Bolson that sits under the Eastside of town. That’s a good thing because the utility doesn’t want to over-pump the region’s vital aquifers.
Still, prolonged drought combined with intense heat can put some stress on El Paso’s water supply. Amid record-setting heat last year, El Paso Water pumped almost 124,000 acre-feet of water compared with the 10-year average usage of about 119,000 acre-feet, a 4% increase in 2023. An acre-foot is about 326,000 gallons of water.
El Pasoans collectively consume about 110 million gallons of water per day on average. On the hottest summer days, though, water usage across the city can top 162 million gallons as people water their plants more, run water-using evaporative air conditioners or even shower more than once to beat the heat or wash off sweat. El Paso Water says it can pump a maximum of 170 million gallons of groundwater from its system per day, including water produced by the utility’s desalination plant near the airport.
And El Paso Water is trying to develop what the utility’s executives call a “drought-proof” supply of water.
The Kay Bailey Hutchison Desalination Plant is a facility unique to El Paso that purifies brackish groundwater pumped from the Hueco Bolson that’s about one-tenth as salty as seawater. El Paso Water is using extra cash from recent rate increases to increase the amount of water the desal plant can produce to 33 million gallons daily from 27.5 million gallons currently. The utility is also building its Advanced Water Purification Plant adjacent to the Bustamante Wastewater Treatment Plant in the Lower Valley along Southside Road.. The new water purification facility is expected to start operating next year or in 2026, and it will treat wastewater to drinkable standards and produce up to 10 million gallons of potable water per day.
When will the monsoon rains arrive in El Paso this year?
Since 1990, El Paso has received an average of 8.89 inches of rainfall annually. About 5 inches of that rain typically falls between July and September each year. Those late summer monsoons can help the water situation in El Paso by curbing the amount of water that El Pasoans use for outdoor plants, and by cooling the city by a few degrees so that El Paso Water customers don’t have to run their ACs as much. However, the National Weather Service predicts that drought will persist in the El Paso area at least through August, and it expects the city to receive below-average rainfall this summer. In the near-term, the NWS office in El Paso is forecasting two days of triple-digit temperatures this week, followed by a chance of rain here this weekend.
Is climate change causing the hotter summer weather we’re seeing in El Paso?
Yes, at least partially. Since 1970, the average daily temperature experienced in El Paso from June through August has increased by 5.8 degrees, the third-biggest increase in daily summer heat anywhere in the United States over that time after Boise, Idaho, and Reno, Nevada, according to Climate Central. Thenonprofit research organization studies the link between rising temperatures and human-caused climate change. El Paso last year experienced 47 days that were above “normal,” which refers to the average temperatures recorded locally from 1991 through 2020. Climate Central researchers argue the increase in temperatures in El Paso and across the globe in recent decades has been too intense to be naturally-occuring and is attributable to climate change.
Climate Central said a heat wave that’s set to hit El Paso and much of North America this week – the NWS issued a heat warning here for Wednesday and Thursday – is likely happening because of greenhouse gasses that humans have emitted into the atmosphere. “Hundreds of millions of people will experience heat that was made more likely and more intense by human-caused climate change,” Andrew Pershing, vice president of science at Climate Central, said of the incoming heat spell.
How can I stay safe this summer?
The city of El Paso this week will have cooling centers open Wednesday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. at five facilities throughout the city. Cooling centers include the Valle Bajo Community Center in the Lower Valley, the Chalio Acosta Sports Center on the South Side, the Nations Tobin Sports Center in the Northeast, the Marty Robbins Recreation Center on the Eastside and the Galatzan Recreation Center on the Westside.
In addition to drinking fluids and seeking shade during the hottest times of day – like when your shadow is shorter than you – the American Academy of Dermatology association suggests wearing sunscreen over 30 SPF any time you’re in the sun. And tinted sunscreen that contains iron oxide can help prevent you from developing sun-caused dark spots.
The AAD says the amount of sunscreen adults must apply should fill up a shot glass, because less than one ounce isn’t enough. It takes 15 minutes for sunscreen to absorb into your skin, and people have to reapply sunscreen at least every two hours, and after swimming or sweating. Also, get rid of those old sunscreen bottles in your cabinet: sunscreens only retain their strength for about 3 years.
This article first appeared on El Paso Matters and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
