After the region watched temperatures soar going all the way back to July 2, clouds moved in Thursday afternoon and some parts even got a little rain. National Weather Service meteorologist Dan Shoemaker said Dallas-Fort Worth hit a high of 97 at 5:33 p.m. Thursday and was unlikely to climb higher. Afternoon cloud cover had allowed temperatures to dip into the 80s.
The 100-degree streak ended at 40 days, just missing the 1980 record of 42 days consecutive days of triple-digit temperatures.
Earlier Thursday, at least a few residents were a little disappointed at the possibility of not breaking the record after living through such a hot summer.
"I want it to go ahead and prove that I'm right about this summer being worse than 1980," Dr. Al Roberts, an internal medicine professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, said as the record was up in the air Thursday afternoon.
He said even his pool hasn't provided him relief from the heat. "It's like swimming in pea soup," he said.
Bert Moore, dean of the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences at the University of Texas at Dallas, said rooting for the streak was a way for people to "create something memorable out of their misery."
"I told my wife that I wanted it to break the record," Moore said, then added, "Maybe I'd trade the record for a little rain."
Others were grateful for any kind of break from the heat.
"I didn't expect it to be this nice today," said Sherise Adams as she took a drag on her cigarette outside a restaurant at the Galleria Dallas shopping mall. "It feels good out here. One hundred degrees and over is ridiculous. The humidity is crazy. It messes up my hair."
Valet Jorge Medrano also said he was happy to see the streak end.
"We could wait 100 more years for the record to be broken," he said.
But the relief likely won't last long. Temperatures were expected to be as high as 103 by next week and are predicted to at least hit 100 on Friday.
Even though Dallas-Fort Worth's streak of consecutive 100-degree days has ended, the area has broken other records this summer. National Weather Service meteorologist Joe Harris said the first five days of August in the Dallas-Fort Worth area set new highs and set or tied all of the highest minimum temperatures.
The area also still has a chance at reaching the 1980 record of number of total 100-degree days. Already, Dallas-Fort Worth has had 47 this year, and the record is 69.
Some Texas cities, including Waco and Tyler, have broken their record for 100-degree consecutive days. Tyler's previous record was 20 days in a row in 1998, and it has had 45 straight days of 100-degree weather as of Thursday. Waco has 43 consecutive 100-degree days, one more than the 1980 record.
---
Associated Press writer Linda Stewart Ball contributed to this report.
