On the morning of Nov. 24, the National Weather Service in San Angelo recorded a rainfall total of 1.97 inches at Mathis Field over the last 24 hours, breaking the record-rainfall total for that date.
Nov. 21 Daily Maximum Rainfall at San Angelo, 0.64 inches beats record of 0.3 inches from 1962.
Nov. 24 Daily Maximum Rainfall at San Angelo, 1.96 inches beats record of 1 inches from 1914.
-NWS DATA
The measurement from 1914 was recorded when the San Angelo weather station was still at Fort Concho.
That rainfall brought the year-to-date total for San Angelo up to 25.27 inches. Normal average YTD rainfall for the date is 19.87 inches.
During the storms on the night of July 4, some areas of Tom Green County, particularly those north of town along FM 2105, were estimated to have received 12 inches in only a few hours. This resulted in a massive flow down what is known as East Angelo Draw, that flooded entire neighborhoods in Lake View, and throughout southeast San Angelo.
The important thing to remember about this year is the location of these weather events. Patrick McCullough of the National Weather Service in San Angelo explains:
“There’s not that much different about this year. We’ve had years like this with significant rainfall often over the last 20-25 years. This year happens to have hit a lot of populated locations.
“Take Menard, for example. It rained right over Menard, but if you took that same rain ten miles north of Menard, that wouldn’t have nearly the same effect. It’s not really any different than the patterns we’ve seen in past years.
Further Reading: Flood Recovery in Menard
“We don’t have a ton of population centers around here, and it just so happens that they’ve taken aim at those.”
“In my time, and I’ve been here since the office opened, I have seen so many of setups very similar to the rain events of this year; they just didn’t hit San Angelo, they didn’t hit Menard.”
On Records
San Angelo has had a number of record breaking days in 2025, but context is important.
Many of these record breaking days have come in the last month, during our mini-November heatwave:
Nov. 14 New Record High 90 F, beats 88 F from 1989.
Nov. 15 New Record High 89 F, beats 86 F from 2021.
Nov. 16 New Record High 89 F, beats 87 F from 2021.
Nov. 17 New Record High 89 F, beats 88 F from 2017.
-NWS DATA
It’s always of note when a record is broken, for climatology reasons. Often, it doesn’t take much to break a record. And sometimes the record was set in a different location, like with our 111-year record that was shattered.
Records for weather data in San Angelo go back into the 1880s, but there are large inconsistencies and gaps in the data before 1948, when the National Weather Service began keeping the records.
At Fort Concho, while it was an active base, this task was usually performed by a post surgeon, according to site manager Robert Bluthardt.
Heavy, localized rains in July did trigger a few new records:
Jul. 4 Daily Maximum Rainfall at San Angelo Airport, 2.35 inches beats record of 2.31 inches from 1981.
Jul. 9 Daily Maximum Rainfall at San Angelo Airport, 1.18 inches beats record of 0.74 inches from 1976
–NWS DATA
McCullough explains: “This office was established in 1948, It’s moved around a little bit, but there are requirements they have to follow when you move a weather office.
“It has to be a certain number of miles away, at such an elevation. If a site gets too close to paved areas, they must move it to keep the climatology the same.
“We have very different equipment now than they had in 1900. The rain gauge is pretty much the same, but all the temperature equipment has changed. The data goes through statistical analysis, so you can compare apples to apples, and not apples to oranges.”
Coming Trends
McCullough also went over a few trends that are currently being watched by forecasters:
“This winter we are heading into is La Nina, which is normally dryer for us but, but obviously we’re not really settled into that pattern in November, that’s a little bit unusual.
“Again, something we’ve seen in the past. And we just haven’t had a strong enough system to come and come create some of this heavier rainfall.
“Normally by November we’ve had a few cold fronts come in, and the moisture from the Gulf of Mexico would have cleared out. We haven’t observed that yet.”
