Gardeneer, if your relative in the Dallas area lived here last year, they got see something really odd. 62.61 inches of precipitation (rain) and sandwiched between the rainy seasons was 41 days without any precipitation from July 9 - August 18, 2015. The third most driest consecutive days. The 62.61 inches of rainfall in 2015 blew away the record of 53.53".
DFW Airport is poor place to keep weather records. It is almost always wetter/colder/hotter just a few miles away.. At our house some 50+ miles to the south, we had over 73 inches of rainfall in 2015. There were many days that our 5" rain gauge overfilled.
I do agree that knowing the averages is a very useful tool, but it doesn't tell, "The rest of the story" as Paul Harvey would say. I miss hearing him. I found this one because it's just before Thanksgiving
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG72ld2kgOo