SAN ANTONIO — Even by regular Texas summer standards, more San Antonians might have spent much of June indoors to avoid the stifling heat that overtook the region and kept heat index values – or "feels-like" temperatures – in triple-digits for what felt like the whole month.
Though it probably didn't feel like it, the mercury stopped at 97 Sunday afternoon—making it just the third day since June 18 that San Antonio didn't hit 100 degrees.
The good news for those who plan to celebrate the Fourth of July outdoors: The National Weather Service says San Antonio isn't expected to reach 100 degrees, instead stopping at a "mild" high of 97.
The bad news: It's very likely that Tuesday's heat index will once again breach 100, continuing this summer's ceaseless trend of high humidity levels. What's more, the low will be only 78, so don't expect much of a reprieve at the evening fireworks. Wear loose-fitting clothes and have a water bottle with you to make sure a day of celebration doesn't turn into one of physical exhaustion.
Conditions will be partly sunny for Independence Day in the Alamo City, with mild wind gusts between 5 and 10 mph that will pick up a bit in the evening. Communities to the east might see an isolated storm or two, but expect it to stay dry in San Antonio.
How hot is it historically on July Fourth in San Antonio?
2016 was the first time in seven years that the Alamo City reached triple-digits on the holiday, and since then we've alternated highs in the low-100s and low-90s, according to National Weather Service data. The exception was 2017, which split the difference with a high of 98.
It's become much more common for the mercury to reach 100 in San Antonio on Independence Day in recent years. From 2000 to 2015, it happened just twice. Since then, it's happened four times.
But this century's data provides a glimpse at warming conditions around the planet: While we've already reached 100 degrees on Independence Day six times since 2000, it happened only once before that going back to 1885, when NWS data begins. That year was 1947, which topped out at 100 degrees a few months after Jackie Robinson signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers and a few days before an alien ship did or didn't crash-land in the New Mexico desert.
San Antonio returned to an enviable July-Fourth high of 90 degrees the following year.
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