SAN ANTONIO, TX — San Antonio has spent much of the summer feeling hot and sticky, but it has barely cracked 100 degrees. Through Aug. 4, the city’s official weather site at San Antonio International Airport had logged just one triple-digit day this year. That is an odd number for a place that has averaged 23 such days a year since 2000, and it would put 2026 on track for one of the mildest triple-digit summers in decades.
The surprise is not that Texas was hot. It is that Boston, of all places, has already matched and passed San Antonio with two 100-degree days, while New York City has also logged more. In a summer built for sweating, the Texas city has mostly stayed below the headline number, even if the humidity has made plenty of afternoons feel close enough.
What People Are Saying
The reaction online has been the usual mix of disbelief and weather nerdery. People are pointing out how strange it is for Boston, where 100-degree heat is rare, to outrun San Antonio on the triple-digit scoreboard. Others are sharing the broader list of cities that have done the same, turning a simple temperature stat into a small contest no one asked for but plenty of people will happily discuss.
What keeps the story circulating is how counterintuitive it feels. San Antonio still has a higher average high temperature this summer than Boston, Bismarck or Billings. Yet the Northeast and parts of the northern Plains have had more days that crossed the 100-degree line, which gives the whole thing that mildly absurd, only-in-weather twist that people love to pass around.
How It Started
The pattern began with a wetter-than-normal stretch across South-Central Texas. Since May 19, San Antonio has picked up 12.81 inches of rain, about 65% above normal. More clouds, more evaporation and more humidity have helped hold daytime temperatures down, even as the air has often felt heavy enough to make it seem much hotter than the thermometer said.
At the same time, the most intense heat has been displaced farther north and east by high-pressure systems and shifting weather patterns. Dallas-Fort Worth has recorded 12 days at or above 100 degrees, Amarillo 22, and cities such as Denver, Bismarck and Billings have also stacked up triple-digit readings. Even western Europe has had unusually hot spells, with Paris logging four days above 100, according to AccuWeather.
Where It Stands
For now, San Antonio remains far behind several other cities in pure triple-digit counts, even though its average high since June 1 has still been 93 degrees. Boston’s average high has been 82, while Bismarck and Billings have averaged 85 and 84 respectively. So the Texas city has not exactly been cool; it has just avoided the very top end of the thermometer more often than usual.
Whether that stays true through the end of summer will depend on how much more rain falls and where the heat dome settles next. If San Antonio finishes with only one 100-degree day, it would be its second-lowest total in 30 years, behind 2007, when it never reached 100 at all. That final number is still not settled, which is why this odd little weather comparison is not quite done yet.
More of what the internet is talking about, on West Fargo Packer.