Already, record highs hit city

Biology junior Maxim Polansky has incorporated a new strategy into his daily walking schedule to avoid too much outside heat exposure.

"I basically walk through all the buildings just to be in the air conditioning, so it'll be a lot cooler," Polansky said. "You pretty much start sweating anytime you walk outside for more than five minutes."

Already, triple-digit temperatures have been recorded at Camp Mabry 11 times since May 19. There were only three days in 2007 when the camp recorded temperatures exceeding 100 degrees.

Summer has yet to begin, but new record-breaking high temperatures were set June 9 and 10, at 101 degrees and 102 degrees, respectively.

A lack of rain since September 2007 has contributed to recent summer-like temperatures and drought-like conditions, said Clay Anderson, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in San Antonio.

Precipitation records at Camp Mabry since January have measured at 9.6 inches - 6.11 inches below the norm at this time in the year, Anderson said.

The increase in temperature can also be attributed to three weeks of high-pressure weather patterns in the atmosphere that have shifted back and forth between West Texas and Northwest Mexico, which have not allowed thunderstorms to develop.

Anderson said last year's cooler summer makes this current heat wave feel hotter than normal but that overall the temperatures are normal for Texas.

"It's hard for the average person to actually detect any slight increase in temperature," he said.

A Texas resident for over 20 years, Anderson said he has experienced more intense heat waves than this summer promised.

"I remember the summers back in the late 1970s and early 1980s," he said. "Those were brutal."

While Anderson does not want to give a long-term prediction, he said he has an idea about the weather patterns leading up to the start of summer on Saturday.

"If there is any measurable precipitation, consider [Austin] to be lucky," he said.