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.

I'm Now A CoCoRaHS Volunteer

I grew up in Sacramento, California and the weather seemed like a pretty consistent event. If it was raining at my house it was guaranteed to be raining all over Sacramento and I assumed it was raining similar amounts. This was the days before satellite assisted weather reporting and so I really knew nothing about weather patterns. I only knew it rained all winter and was sunny all summer. That was the reality for all of us children. When I was in the fifth grade my teacher put up a bulletin board that read “April Showers Bring May Flowers”. One boy voiced what we were all thinking, “how dumb is that, everyone knows it doesn’t rain in April”. Well, it almost never rains in April in Sacramento, but I would learn later in life that for much of the country the weather is not so predictable.

I now live in Texas where it can rain all year or not rain all year. It can be raining on one side of the house and sunny on the other side of the house. I once was with a friend driving by the entrance to the San Antonio Airport. It was coming down so hard we could barely see out the window. It was one nasty storm. I couldn’t wait for that night’s weather report to learn how much rain we got. I just knew it had to be several inches. So when the weather man reported we had received no rain at the airport, not even a trace, I couldn’t believe my ears. The freeway I had been on was less than a mile from the weather collecting data station but not a drop had fallen there. That is Texas for you. It is also the reality for many people across the country.

Recently I learned about CoCoRaHS, which is short for Community Collaborative Rain, Hail & Snow Network. CoCoRaHS is “volunteers working together to measure precipitation across the nation.” CoCoRaHS is free to join. All one needs is an official rain gauge and the willingness to daily record your rain/snow totals when home.

This morning with the help of the County CoCoRaHS Coordinator and her husband, my official rain gauge was installed. They also took a GPS reading of my location, since the map software CoCoRaHS uses put me in the middle of the highway. Anyone can visit the site and check in to see how much rain has fallen in different areas. For instance I am in Edwards County. My location is TX-ED-22. I am the 22nd person to volunteer in Edwards County, but I am aware of a few more people who will soon be joining the force.

If you want to find out where in your own county volunteers are, you can simply go to the CoCoRaHS web site and click on the map to find your own county. Then see where totals have been reported. And if while there you want to know how much rain has been arriving at AOCCCI, click on “MAP” on the top menu bar, then “Station Number Maps”, then under “Map Location” choose Texas and Edwards county Once the map pops up just look for station TX-ED-22. Once you know where AOCCCI is located on the map, under “Map Type” you can select “precipitations” from the drop down menu. There you will get a map showing the rain totals for all the stations in Edwards County who reported that day. You can also change the date to see what the totals were for any date in the past.

If as you have been reading the thought has crossed your mind that this sounds like fun, then may I suggest that you visit the CoCoRaHS web site and learn more about it. It really does not matter if you live in the country or a large city, the more people recording their precipitation totals, the better. This is more than just a fun hobby. This information is being used by climatologists, hydrologists, emergency managers, engineers, and more. It could even save lives. So if you think this is something you would like to do, then check it out.

And finally, I took some time this afternoon and looked up Sacramento County in California, where I grew up. It rained a few days ago and there were lots of people reporting rain totals. As a child I might have thought everyone was receiving the exact same amount of rain every day, but one look at that map told a different story.

God's Protecting Hand

South Texas thawed out just in time for another arctic blast to hit us. Many folks around here spent the weekend repairing broken pipes from the last freeze. I have visited a number of public bathrooms with signs saying the sink still has no water. Sunday I heard from a number of people who were born and raised in the area who could not remember a time where it had been below freezing for so long. That last storm really was a history making storm.

Sunday after church I drove to San Antonio, visited with a few people, and spent the night. Monday morning I got an oil change, did my shopping (and shopping for two other friends), and then drove home. Before arriving home though I had to make my first delivery to a neighbor. Once home I unloaded the car and checked on the cats, who were fine thanks to my neighbor who had checked on them that morning.

Tuesday morning I drove to Rocksprings to make the second delivery and did a little work in the library. I also stopped at the grocery store for a neighbor and picked up a few items. Out here we have to help each other, it is just part of being neighborly. After I was done there I headed for home, first dropping off the groceries.

Normally I would not attempt going to Rocksprings and Kerrville in the same day but the weather forecasters had been telling us freezing rain was coming, and I wanted to beat the bad weather. So I got my things, picked up a friend who lives a few miles to the west, and we headed for an afternoon of shopping.

The reason I felt such a need to go to Kerrville yesterday was to visit a business in town that sells Derksen Portable Buildings. The people I purchased this land from had started to build a house but instead purchased this mobile home. This past year I have been staring at the foundation that was left trying to decide what to do with it. I still have not made a final decision but one thought is to just buy a portable building, put it on the foundation, and then turn it into a small efficiency apartment. Because of the space it would not be fully functional, but it is just a short walk to the house for cooking and other needs. Like I said, I have not made my final decision, but I do know I need to do something before that foundation rots away.

It is now Wednesday morning. Yesterday it reached about 70F (21c) with gusty winds. This morning it was 13F (-11c) when I woke up. The cats are once again locked in the kitty condo, though they do not appear happy with my decision. It is lightly snowing outside.

I know there are a lot of folks praying for me and I am extremely grateful. God is listening. He is taking care of me. One bad thing about the location of The Ranch is when I drive to Kerrville in the morning the sun is in my eyes. When I drive home in the evening the sun is in my eyes. It is especially bad this time of the year. There is one stretch of Hwy 41 where the sun basically blinds a person. That was the case Monday evening as I was driving home. I just could not see where the road was except for knowing I was in a turn. God took care of me though. Just in time I caught a glimpse of where the road was and was able to adjust the steering wheel so I remained on the road and avoided hitting the road sign I had been heading for.

God would once again have to protect me as I and my friend drove home from Kerrville last night. This time we were on Hwy 27, a hilly curvy road with lots of trees, brush, and deer. There were 4 cars behind me as we drove towards the tiny town of Mountain Home, when out of the brush came 2 deer running at full speed. As the buck ran right in front of my car I managed to hit the brakes and somehow avoid hitting him; miracle number one. The doe came right behind the buck but she chose to run behind my car instead. I am still amazed that the truck, which had been driving to close to me, somehow managed to avoid crashing into me and the doe; miracle number two. There were several more cars behind the truck, who also managed to stop in time; miracle number three. In the opposite direction came another car that also had to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting the two deer; miracle number four. In addition to all the cars, on the opposite side of the road was a bicyclist who narrowly escaped getting run over by the deer who headed straight for him; miracle number five.

As soon as we escaped the deer I looked in my rear view mirror and could not believe my eyes. A car, which turned out to be a contract mail car, was driving on the shoulder and speeding past all us cars. If there had been even one more deer running out of the bushes, that car would have crashed into the deer, and then probably crashed into us. That driver could have easily caused a multi-car accident with fatalities (remember the pour guy riding his bike). As soon as he passed me he moved back into the driving lane and quickly increased his speed and was out of sight. I am guessing he speeded up to at least 70 mph, maybe faster. The speed limit there (before we arrived in town) was 60 mph.

How all of us managed to not hit the deer or another car is truly a miracle. God protected all of us.