They say that San Antonio had the wettest September on record this year. August and September are often times of sudden rains/floods here, after months of drought through the summer. But this September, we broke the record for most rain in September by mid-month. By the end, we had nearly 20 inches of rain through the month. It may not be much compared to some areas, but here, it’s massive. Flooding, road damage, construction delays, and tons of humidity.

It’s this last one that has basically nullified San Antonio’s chance for a real autumn. Sure, it might be 15 degrees cooler than the summer right now, but the heat index is still way up there, and it’s soupy outside. Chest-constricting soupy. There was one day after we got home from vacation that I went out for a walk because the morning temp had finally dropped to 72. The humidity wasn’t as bad that morning, and I relished it. The next day, the temp was just as low, but I walked outside excited only to find that it felt like 85 and sweltering out. Not okay!

Unfortunately, this is a trend that plans to continue. Autumn is never long in San Antonio. We get a bit of small relief in September (temps in the high 80s instead of the high 90s, with mornings dropping to the low 70s), and then sometime in October we have a few weeks of gloriously cool days. Then suddenly we drop into the 40s, and we start the winter rollercoaster of 40-50 degree swings. Not uncommon to wake up to temps in the 30s and then to have them hit 80s by afternoon. You learn to dress in layers in San Antonio. But those few weeks of autumn days, days when we can keep the windows open overnight and actually turn off the a/c (a thing which is still unthinkable at the moment) – I live for those. I live for the cool morning walks and bright crisp days. And this year, it looks like we’re not going to get any of them.

(Fall 2012 on a muggy morning in early November)

This humidity is stripping away our days of autumn. Every day our temps look beautiful and feel awful. Right now it looks like we might have at least a few days of fall (in two weeks), but I’m not very hopeful. We had that hope for this weekend too, and the cool, dry front never made it this far south. Boo. I want a chance to wear those three-quarter-sleeved shirts and light sweaters, and I may not get it this year.

Of course, there’s no controlling the weather, but I’m just sending out this light wish into the universe: Please at least let us have a few weeks of autumn. Please? I suppose in the meantime, I’ll keep playing with Halloween decorations and RIP books and pretending we might see a few leaves change color at some point before the traditional windstorms of November rip them all away.