Last summer was hot.  Miserably hot.  But meteorologists are predicting that this summer might not be so bad.

Might we actually be able to leave our air-conditioned homes, schools, and offices at 4 p.m. without pain?   Will the pools be cool and refreshing, instead of feeling like bath water?

We won’t go so far as to say this summer will be a pleasant one (we do live in Texas and not San Diego, after all), but it is shaping up to be a little bit more bearable than last summer.

A meteorologist with the National Weather Service attending a drought forum in Lubbock Friday said rainfall amounts will be near average this summer, instead of below average at the drought level. Average rainfall for Texas in the summer may not be a lot, but at least we mostly likely won’t be drying up this summer, and our lawns may actually stay green.

And the temperatures are predicted to ease a bit. From June to August last year, temperatures were about five degrees warmer than average each day. This year, they’re predicted to be just 1 or 2 degrees above normal. Ouch! That’s not quite the prediction we were hoping for, but at least we won’t have the scorcher we had last year — just a semi-scorcher apparently.

It WAS sort of amazing last summer when the temperature dropped from 101 to 99, and we all thought that was a generous and merciful act by mother nature to cool us off that much. Anything in the 90′s felt like a cold front, so maybe a degree or two will make a big difference.

In Tyler, Fun Forest Pool on Glenwood Boulevard and Woldert Pool on West 32nd Street are still closed for the season, but we’ll keep you updated as to when they’ll open.

It may be hot in Texas in the summer, but at least we have a large number of ice cream shops and frozen yogurt stores per capita. We deserve it and it’s justified!

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