South Central Texas/Texas Hill Country Weather

If you read the last few blogs it would be easy to walk away thinking it is cold in South Central Texas/Texas Hill Country, unless that is you live in North Dakota or somewhere else where it actually is cold in the winter. Not wanting to leave you with a false impression, I have decided to spend a little time on weather. It is true January 12 and February 12 were very cold days here, unusually cold days in fact. If you live in other parts of the world and want to keep close tabs on the weather here, the nearest big cities to follow would be San Antonio and Austin. Austin is in the middle of the Texas Hill Country, about 160 miles (258 km) to the east. San Antonio is about 120 miles (193 km) southeast. The local news stations that I have access to all come out of San Antonio, so I am much more familiar with their weather and how it compares to mine, then I am of Austin. Generally speaking though, there is probably not much difference between Austin and where I am, compared to San Antonio and my location. It does get colder here then San Antonio and the due to geographical conditions, snow is much more likely here then it is in San Antonio. And based on my observations over the past decade, it appears IF it is going to snow in the Texas Hill Country; it seems it more often snows where I am compared to other parts of the Hill Country. But that does not mean I live in a really cold climate, because I do not. The simple fact that it has snowed two years in a row here is very unusual and even one of the San Antonio weather forecasters remarked how unusual that is. And when it does snow here, folks often drive to where the snow is so their children can have the experience of seeing what snow looks like.

So what is normal winter weather for South Central Texas and the Texas Hill Country? The simple answer is there is no such thing as normal. The best description for the weather here is variety. To give you an example, Sunday February 12 it was cold. The temperature was 27f (-2.77c) when I got up that morning. There was no precipitation when I drove to church. But half an hour later there was snow and sleet coming down hard. When I got out of church it had stopped snowing and though the streets were covered in an icy mess, the drive home was not bad. Around 2:00pm it started raining and continued to rain all day and all night. Sunday’s high was 32f (0c). To my surprise the ground remained covered in snow turned to ice all day. Usually the ground is to warm for anything to stick and with all the rain I fully expected it to melt, but it never did.

Monday morning I was up and dressed by 5:00am, as I had promised to drive some married friends to Fredericksburg (84 miles/135 km) for routine medical screening tests (the kind they put you to sleep while they conduct them). When I got up the temperature outside was 34f (1c) and there was still a thick layer of ice everywhere. Once on the county highway, it is only a little over 3 miles to the east before reaching the next county. It seemed as soon as we drove into the next county the road conditions really improved. The ice disappeared and except for some dense fog, it was easy driving. We never again saw ice. It took us a little over an hour to get to Kerrville (64 miles/ 103 km) and by then the temperature had risen to 39f (3.8c). It was about 2:00pm when we finally got home and by then it was sunny and getting warm. I had a sweatshirt on and outside I was a little too warm (I left my coat in the house).

Tuesday morning it was cool and I did put on a coat when I went outside to feed the animals around 7:15am, but it did not take long to warm up. It was sunny all day and sunny days mean it will warm up quickly. By 9:00am all I had on was a sweatshirt. It was already to warm for a coat. I know the high temperature here was 72f (22c).

It is now early Wednesday morning. The sun has been up for less than an hour. The temperature outside is 58f (14c). It is cloudy with a chance of rain, but should be clearing out by noon and sunny this afternoon. We are expected to reach the low 70’s (21c-23c).

So there you have it, typical South Central Texas/Texas Hill Country weather is never typical. It can be freezing one day and hot the next. So if you hate cold weather and it is a cold day here, it won’t be cold for that long. And while folks in the northern states are just dreaming of when they can plant their vegetable garden, those of us here are already preparing. There is still a chance of a hard freeze so it is still a bit early to plant that garden, but many of us have already started the process.

(It is easy to cover these pots with some sheets when freeze warnings are issued.)

Update: Around 8:30am I decided to take a break from writing and go outside to get a little work done and let the goat graze. I wore only a long sleeve shirt; it was just too warm for a coat. Clouds did move in and it got breezy but rain never appeared. It is now closing in on 2:30pm. It is 68f (20c) outside, but passive solar heating has heated the house to 75f (24c). I learned a long time ago that the sun actually feels hotter here then it does farther north. So I know 68f is actually warm enough for short sleeves. No matter what, 75f is a short sleeve temperature. So there you have it.

Sunday morning it snowed and three days later on Wednesday I am wearing a short sleeve top. Now that is typical winter weather here.

Winter On The Ranch

A week ago my friend Rick came out for another week of working on the ranch. The current project is to build a goat enclosure. That requires a fence, which is easier said than done. Soil is at a premium here and rocks are plentiful. We rented a jack hammer and started digging holes. After 3 days of hard work and sore muscles we got a good start on half the holes. Rick is use to building city fences where there is soil. So this has been asking people a lot of questions, observing fences along the highway, and learning a lot. Saturday he went home, but it should not be long before he returns to continue the work.

It doesn’t happen often but occasionally the temperatures drop to the freezing range. It did so today (Sunday). To make this event even rarer, it came with precipitation. Here are a few photos I took today when I got home from church.

The fence posts are the beginnings of Lawn Mower's new enclosure. She will have about 1/4 acre to roam.

Lawn Mower was probably born last March or April. So this is her first snow. I gave her some more alfalfa upon returning home from church because what I gave her this morning is covered in snow/ice.

The snow is not fazing the cats at all.