SAN ANTONIO – You’ve more than likely made good use of the jacket this season due to the multiple occurrences of cold air and even wintry precipitation. This may leave you asking: Has San Antonio been colder than normal lately?
Here’s the answer:
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Believe it or not, November was San Antonio’s third warmest November on record. This month brought a temperature of 91 degrees on Nov. 5, which broke the daily record.
While the average first freeze for San Antonio typically occurs around Thanksgiving, November 2017 never brought it.
Summer put its own warm spin on November for South Texas.
December: Near average?
If it wasn’t November, then December must be where most of the cold has come from, right? Well, not exactly.
The average temperature for December finished right at normal: 52.9 degrees.
While a cold snap near the beginning of the month brought a record snowfall to San Antonio, the below average temperatures only lasted for a few days.
It was not until Christmas Day when the long stretch of cold began. Overall, this put temperatures below average for the final week of 2017.
We also had some really warm days—near 80 degrees—during the month. The warm balanced out the cold to make for an average month.
Why does it seem like it’s been so cold?
Old man winter has attracted more attention this year due to a couple of rare weather events in South Texas.
The first was an unprecedented second earliest snowfall on Dec 7 that surprised everyone with a blanket of white on their lawn.
The other winter weather event came as a prolonged stretch of clouds and temperatures in the 40s and 50s for the end of the month.
These two weather events have made winter come to life in the eyes of South Texans.
What does this mean for the rest of winter 2018?
In reality, the past two months have no bearing on what is coming for the rest of the winter.
The globe is in a “La Nina” pattern which statistically means a warm winter in Texas; however, this isn’t always the case. With January and February still ahead of us, chances are we still have some more cold spells to endure before winter is over.