Edited to add article:
Paper: Houston Chronicle
Date: Wed 06/25/2008
Section: A
Page: 1
Edition: 3 STAR R.O.
Crime fighters in Texas bump Night Out to cooler October / Police say heat of August keeps many people indoors
By ALLAN TURNER
Staff
For 24 long years, Houstonians swatted mosquitoes for law and order. They sweated for community solidarity. They turned out by the tens of thousands in the hottest part of the summer to join their fellow Americans in the crime-fighting National Night Out.
This year they're putting it all on ice. Sort of.
City police officials have announced that this year Houston and all of Texas will observe National Night Out on Oct. 7 - two months after the rest of the nation.
"You've been out at night in August, and you know what that's like," said police spokesman Jesse Martinez. "And you've been out at night in October, and you know what that's like, too."
This year, Houstonians who turn out to meet local police officials and their neighbors can expect temperatures to be about 11 degrees cooler than they were in August.
Last year, Martinez said, about 60,000 Houston-area residents participated in National Night Out activities.
"Now," he said, "I think we can make that number a lot higher."
Matt Peskin, executive director of the National Association of Town Watch, the Night Out sponsor, said his group agreed to experimentally reschedule Texas events after it received complaints about the heat from law enforcement agencies in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
"There are two trains of thought on this," he said. "It could be great, or it could be a total flop."
Dallas' average high temperature in August is 95 degrees, but it often gets hotter.
In 1998, the city was gripped by a 29-day heat wave in which the mercury consistently topped 100 degrees.
It was so hot that a train derailed near Fort Worth after heat warped the tracks.
Dallas' record August high stands at 115 degrees, recorded in 1909.
"It's always been hot," Peskin said. "But in recent years it's intensified."
Peskin said the October date for Texas will remain in effect until its impact on attendance is determined.
Last year, 35 million people in the United States and Canada turned out for National Night Out events.
...
TEMPERATURE SWING
In Houston, the weather in August is predictably hot and muggy (not to mention mosquito-infested). October temperatures can vary widely, but are more likely to be cooler.
Copyright notice: All materials in this archive are copyrighted by Houston