Texas is usually known for its sunshine, warmth and of course, generous portions. This time around, Mother Nature had different plans for the Lone Star State.
Beginning in the middle of February, the Polar Vortex plunged into the northern tier of the US, bringing artic air to places like Montana and the Dakotas. With temperatures falling to 30 below zero in Montana, this outbreak meant business. As it traversed to the south, the first records in Texas were broken on February 12th. Mainly in the northern half of the state. This became much more widespread with record cold air stretching all the way to the Gulf Coast each day afterwards through the 17th.
Winter weather related watches, warnings and advisories from February 14, 2021. Winter Storm Warnings are shaded in pink.
Image courtesy of the Nationa Weather Service.
Additionally, there were Winter Storm Warnings widespread across the entire state of Texas. This spread through all of Oklahoma and Arkansas with winter related alerts in all of Louisiana, Tennessee and continued on to the northeast. In fact, there were over 2000 consecutive miles of winter alerts from Texas to Maine! This is something that is not seen too often and was quite the sight. It is very rare that entire states get put under Winter Storm Warnings, especially a state with the magnitude of Texas and stretching all the way to the Gulf of Mexico (which is around 55 - 65 degrees on average in the winter).
These warnings were warranted as well with snow and ice storms walloping the southern states. Snow and ice reports came in from as far south as Brownsville, TX. For reference, this is just about the same latitude as Naples, FL... So yes, they are very far south and this is extremely abnormal for them. Also, as much as 6 - 12" of snow fell in parts of Texas during this wintry stretch. Unfortunately, this resulted in numerous power outages which lasted weeks in some spots as well as leading to several multi-car pile ups. So as much as this is remarkable, it is dangerous if you are not prepared for it.
Texas Snow day. My favorite shot pic.twitter.com/oxbdzKypyA
— Christopherl (@MVYVEL) February 25, 2021
In terms of records, plenty of daily snow and ice records were broken or close to broken during this stretch. Brownsville, TX received measurable snowfall for only the second time since 1898! On the other hand, while Austin, TX snows a bit more frequently, they had their largest 2-day snowfall since 1949 with 6.4" recorded. Remember, this wasn't only a Texas storm, Arkansas got in on the action too and Little Rock had 2 storms in 3 days with at least 6" of snow from each. Dating back to 1875, they have never had 2 storms in the same winter produce at least 6" of snow! This was 3 days apart! They usually receive around 3.5" for the year, so these 2 storms alone gave them nearly 4-6 years worth of snowfall... This list can go on and on, but we have to get to the temperatures, and let me tell you, it was cold.
Before we get into a some of the records that were broken or nearly broken, let's get a baseline of the average temperatures for a few locations.
Oklahoma City, OK - High: 55 Low: 33
Dallas/Fort Worth, TX - High: 60 Low: 39
Houston, TX - High: 66 Low: 46
Oklahoma City, OK had a record setting streak of temperatures below 20 degrees with 210 consecutive hours below that threshold. This spanned from February 9th - 17th which is even impressive for most major cities in the Northeast, let alone Oklahoma. Dallas had its second longest streak of below freezing temperatures, starting the night of the 13th and lasting through midday on the 19th. Something to think about, just a couple of days afterwards, Dallas was back in the mid-70s. Otherwise, sticking to Texas, Houston had a high temperature of 25 degrees and a wind chill of 1 degree, which are both top 5 on their respective lists. On the 16th, Houston tied their record daily low temperature at 13 degrees and a record low maximum temperature of 35 degrees on the 17th, which beat the previous record of 36, set in 1895 (Yes, 1895).
We could get into every record that was broken, but over 3000 daily temperature records were broken with this cold stretch which is an astonishing amount. Some seasons do not even break this many records across the entire country, let alone a 1-2 week stretch from the Northern - Southern Plains. Nonetheless, records broken or not, this was one of the coldest patterns that folks in the southern US have seen in decades (if not ever) and may be something we never witness again in our lifetimes.
