Heat advisory holds over Cooke County as Texoma heat runs near 100 into next weekend

Cooke County stayed under a National Weather Service heat advisory until 8 p.m. Sunday, with the heat index forecast to reach as high as 106, and forecasters expect afternoons at or near 100 degrees to hold across Texoma into next weekend.

The Fort Worth office, which issued the advisory for Gainesville and the rest of the county, said the mix of heat and humidity raises the risk of heat illness for anyone working or exerting themselves outdoors. It expects above-normal temperatures to last through the week, with heat indices near 105 most afternoons.

For the wider Texoma region, the Norman office said Sunday that the heat wave should run at least into midweek. It put the daily odds of reaching 100 degrees between 50 and 80 percent through Saturday, with the best chances on the north Texas side of its area.

Gainesville's own numbers sit closer to the line than above it. The official point forecast has the city just under 100 on Sunday, at 100 from Monday through Wednesday, then back into the upper 90s to close the week and through the following weekend. Readings at Gainesville Municipal Airport describe the week just past in similar terms: afternoons from Aug. 30 on topped out in the mid 90s or hotter, and the warmest of them cleared 100.

The stretch fits a year that has been warm since January. NOAA's county climate record, which begins in 1895, ranks the first seven months of 2026 as the warmest January-through-July period Cooke County has on file. Nights carry much of it. The county's average low for those months also set a record, while its average high ranked fifth.

Jan.–July 2026 averages, NOAA Climate at a Glance (county records begin 1895) Cooke County: 66.8°F, 4.0° above the 20th-century average — warmest on record. Average low 55.9°F, warmest on record. Average high 77.6°F, fifth warmest. Grayson County: 67.0°F, warmest on record. Denton County: 68.2°F, warmest on record. Montague County: 67.0°F, second warmest behind 2012. Texas statewide: 68.8°F, warmest on record.

The pattern runs well past the county line. Grayson and Denton counties each logged their warmest January-through-July on record, and Montague County came in second, behind 2012. Texas as a whole had its warmest such period in the state record, and NOAA reported July as the warmest month in the contiguous U.S. record.

The U.S. Drought Monitor's Sept. 1 summary put Oklahoma and northern Texas 6 to 10 degrees hotter than normal and described streamflow across much of northern Texas and central and western Oklahoma as quite low.

NOAA's Climate Prediction Center favors above-normal temperatures for the central United States and the southern tier through September, with the highest likelihood over the central Great Plains. Its outlook covering Sept. 19 through Oct. 2 also leans warm, with the strongest odds across the south-central states and the Southeast.