What to expect on your October bill

The dog days of summer lingered on for a few extra weeks in North Texas with eight 100-degree days in September.

The average temperature for September was 84.6 degrees, 4 degrees hotter than the same period a year ago. The average high temperature was also 4.2 degrees higher.

While a welcome sight, the rain amounted to less than an inch – not enough to break up the drought in North Texas or provide relief from the heat. The 0.83 inches was nearly two inches below normal for the month. There were three days where the temperatures remained above 80 degrees at night.

Air condition use in September was up 25 percent from the same period a year ago, based on the Cooling Degree Days (CDD). CoServ Members should expect their electricity usage to be higher this month compared to the same month last year.

CDDs are a metric that use the average temperature for a day and subtracts it from 65, the baseline temperature where no climate control is typically needed. Higher temperatures require more air conditioning so the CDDs will be higher.

For comparison, the CDDs for September 2023 were 595, up from 473 for September 2022.

If there’s a silver lining, usage will be lower than it was in August.

August’s CDDs totaled 872 and were the second highest for any month since 2000, second only to August 2011.