Heat advisories cover western Texoma as Gainesville forecast to hit 100

Triple-digit afternoons and heavier humidity will make outdoor work and Labor Day weekend plans harder across Texoma, the National Weather Service said Friday, with Gainesville forecast to reach 100 degrees by Sunday and heat advisories posted for counties west and north of Cooke County.

The advisories belong to the weather service office in Norman, which kept one in effect until 7 p.m. Friday and set a second for Saturday afternoon. They cover Wilbarger, Wichita, Archer and Clay counties, along with Ardmore, Oklahoma, where forecasters expected heat index readings to climb to roughly 109. The Fort Worth office, whose forecast area takes in Gainesville, listed no watches, warnings or advisories Friday afternoon.

| Place | Fri. | Sat. | Sun. | Advisory |

| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |

| Gainesville | 96 | 99 | 100 | None listed |

| Wichita Falls | 101 | 102 | 102 | Fri. and Sat. |

| Denison | 97 | 100 | — | None listed |

| Sherman | 96 | 99 | 100 | None listed |

| Ardmore, Okla. | 98 | — | — | Fri. and Sat. |

National Weather Service point forecasts, Sept. 4, 2026, in degrees Fahrenheit. Gainesville is also forecast at 100 on Labor Day.

NWS Norman said greater surface moisture moving north would help push heat-index values into advisory territory west of Gainesville. Gainesville Municipal Airport and Wichita Falls/Sheppard Air Force Base each reported a 68-degree dew point Friday afternoon, with heat index readings above 100 at both sites. The Norman office attributed the pattern to a strong upper ridge over the central United States and put heat indices between 105 and 110. The weather service risk table calls a heat index at or above 105 "very hot," a level where heat cramps and heat exhaustion are likely and heatstroke is possible for someone working outside for hours.

The region went into the weekend already running hot. Wichita Falls topped 100 on Thursday, about 11 degrees above the normal high for the date, according to the weather service climate report. Longer records show worse is possible: NWS lists 117 degrees in June 1980 as the city's all-time high and 2011 as its hottest summer, with 100 days at or above 100 degrees.

The heat is settling on dry ground. Drought.gov reported every Cooke County resident affected by drought, unchanged from the week before and double the share of a month earlier. The same site also reported 100 percent of Wichita County residents affected by drought. The U.S. Drought Monitor's Sept. 3 summary described flash drought spreading from Texas into Oklahoma and other central states. NOAA's Climate Prediction Center forecast near- to below-normal rain and above-normal temperatures for the region over the next two weeks, drawing more moisture out of soil and pasture into mid-September.

The Texas State Climatologist's office projects the state will average roughly 3 degrees warmer by 2036 than it did from 1950 through 1999, with the number of 100-degree days close to double the 2001-2020 average. ERCOT reported summer peak-demand records in July and again in August of this year, and the U.S. Energy Information Administration said the July peak occurred during a heat wave.