Volume 11 Number 12                                                                                                               DECEMBER 1998

1998 ended with most Texans dealing with slightly above normal mean monthly temperatures. Temperature departures from normal were very small at all of the first order stations in Texas this month. December precipitation was above normal in parts of Central and East Texas, with the areas in the west (High Plains, Trans Pecos, Edwards Plateau, and Southern regions) receiving below normal monthly precipitation. The month began somewhat warm and ended with the Lone Star State experiencing strong winter conditions. An interesting side note for 1998 was that 1998 in Austin tied the year of 1933 for the warmest year on record. The average temperature for 1998 in Austin was 70.8°F.

The first week of December brought warmer than normal temperatures to areas in Southern Texas. New daily high temperature records and high minimum temperature records were set on a number of occasions in such cities as: Galveston, Midland, Houston, College Station, and Austin. On December 3^rd, late afternoon and evening thunderstorms dropped 1.48" of rain at Dallas/Fort Worth setting a new 24 hour rainfall record for that date. December 7^th finally brought the first freezing temperature to Midland. The temperature barely dropped to 32°F, but when it did it set a new record for the date of the latest freeze at Midland.

An upper level storm system moved east across the state dropping heavy snow in West Texas and cold rain in north, central and southern areas between the 10^th and the 11^th. New 24 hour rainfall records were set at both Dallas/Fort Worth and Waco on the 10^th when 1.13" and 2.57" of rain fell on both cities respectively. In Midland, 9.5" of snow had fallen to the ground by mid-afternoon on the 11^th. This total set a record 24hr snowfall total and a record for the most snow in any given month. This latter record breaks the old record of 9" for one month set in January 1985.

With storm systems tracking to the north of Texas during the middle of December, the weather was pleasant with milder than normal temperatures encompassing the state. This all changed however for the final 10 days of the month. A strong cold front pushed all the way through Texas by the 22^nd bringing freezing temperatures down behind it. Roads were an icy glaze in North and Central Texas due to the frigid temperatures and a storm system responsible for freezing precipitation. Some holiday travelers had to be extremely cautious of the treacherous driving conditions, while others were left stranded because of road closures and long airport delays.
Eventually by the very end of the month, the arctic air was receding with the temperatures in Texas cities beginning to climb back to more normal seasonal values.
 
 

                                                        Prepared by: John F. Griffiths (State Climatologist)
                                                                            Chris J. Gordon (Graduate Assistant)
 
 
 

                                          DECEMBER 1998

	Avg		Avg				Abs	Abs	No. of	Total	% of	Gr'st
	Max		Min		Mean		Max	Min	Days	Pcpn	Avg	24 hr
Station	Temp	Dep	Temp	Dep	Temp	Dep	Temp	Temp	Precip.	(In)	Pcpn	Pcpn	HDD*	CDD*
Abilene	56.6	-0.4	33.4	-0.5	45.0	-0.5	76	13	6	1.37	133%	0.60	615	1
Amarillo	50.9	0.8	25.2	1.5	38.1	1.2	72	10	3	0.41	95%	0.29	828	0
Austin	61.3	-0.7	44.4	3.2	52.9	1.3	80	25	6	1.56	83%	0.95	405	35
Brownsville	71.7	0.0	52.2	-0.2	62.0	-0.1	85	34	6	0.29	23%	0.16	193	107
College Station	61.1	-0.4	42.5	1.3	51.8	0.4	82	24	11	4.82	170%	1.65	436	36
Corpus Christi	67.9	-0.4	49.8	1.4	58.9	0.6	84	31	7	0.72	57%	0.34	261	77
Dallas/Ft. Worth	55.7	-1.8	38.3	2	47.0	0.1	77	20	11	4.43	241%	1.48	559	9
Del Rio	63.9	0.4	40.7	0.1	52.3	0.2	76	25	7	0.40	66%	0.21	389	4
El Paso*	57.0	-0.5	34.0	3.3	46.0	1.9	68	21	4	0.34	60%	0.26	602	0
Houston	65.1	0.4	45.1	2.9	55.1	1.6	84	27	14	4.05	117%	2.25	349	50
Lubbock*	55.0	0.9	27.0	-0.2	41.0	0.4	73	7	3	0.26	49%	0.26	732	0
Midland*	57.0	-1.4	31.0	0.2	44.0	-0.6	77	13	6	0.58	104%	0.51	644	0
Port Arthur*	65.0	0.8	47.0	2.7	56.0	1.7	81	28	15	2.72	57%	1.54	327	58
San Angelo	59.8	0.8	33.3	0.3	46.5	0.5	79	18	5	0.49	62%	0.30	566	0
San Antonio	62.8	-0.7	42.6	1.8	52.7	0.5	80	23	8	0.40	26%	0.29	404	32
Victoria*	64.0	-2.0	45.0	-0.2	55.0	-0.6	82	27	13	3.84	188%	2.02	355	45
Waco	57.5	-1.8	39.3	2	48.4	0.1	79	23	13	4.20	226%	2.58	526	18
Wichita Falls	53.6	-1.3	33.0	2.2	43.3	0.5	76	13	5	1.93	150%	1.06	664	0
Shreveport, LA	58.1	-1.1	40.4	2.2	49.3	0.6	81	22	14	6.24	161%	1.60	535	8

    * Complete temperature data were unavailable. Temperatures are rounded to the nearest whole degree.
    *HDD - Heating degree-day: Refer to the Monthly Average chart for a definition          T = Trace (<0.005")
    *CDD - Cooling degree-day: Refer to the Monthly Average chart for a  definition         M: Information not available.
 

                            CLIMATIC AVERAGES FOR JANUARY

			Rec	Rec		Gr'st	Gr'st	Mean # of Days
	Avg	Avg	High	Low	Avg	Mon	24 hr			Pcpn
	Max	Min	Max	Min	Pcpn	Pcpn	Pcpn	Max. T.	Min. T	>or=
Station	Temp	Temp	Temp	Temp	(In)	(In)	(In)	>90°F	<32°F	0.01"	HDD*	CDD*
Abilene	55	31	89	-9	1.03	4.36	2.18	0	17	5	688	0
Amarillo	49	21	81	-11	0.50	2.33	1.74	0	28	4	927	0
Austin	59	39	90	-2	1.71	9.21	4.41	0	8	8	514	12
Brownsville	69	50	93	19	1.56	5.11	3.00	0	1	8	232	59
College Station	58	39	86	-3	2.65	15.60	5.63	0	11	9	522	11
Corpus Christi	65	45	91	14	1.71	10.78	6.38	0	3	8	338	31
Dallas/Ft. Worth	54	33	88	4	1.83	4.54	3.11	0	15	7	670	0
Del Rio	62	39	89	15	0.56	1.92	1.33	0	7	5	465	6
El Paso	56	29	80	-8	0.40	1.84	0.61	0	19	4	688	0
Galveston	58	47	78	11	3.26	10.75	5.38	0	2	10	396	15
Houston	61	40	84	12	3.29	9.78	2.66	0	7	11	468	16
Lubbock	52	25	83	-16	0.39	4.05	1.56	0	26	4	812	0
Midland	57	29	84	-8	0.40	3.66	1.15	0	20	4	698	0
Port Arthur	60	42	81	14	4.77	14.87	4.92	0	6	10	450	13
San Angelo	57	31	90	5	0.80	3.65	2.49	0	17	5	660	0
San Antonio	61	38	89	0	1.71	8.52	3.18	0	8	8	494	8
Victoria	63	43	88	14	2.16	7.76	4.70	0	5	8	403	21
Waco	56	34	88	-5	1.65	5.83	2.24	0	13	7	620	6
Wichita Falls	52	28	87	-5	1.04	4.48	2.02	0	21	5	781	0
Shreveport, LA	55	35	84	3	3.88	10.09	4.35	0	13	10	623	6
Sunrise/Sunset			SUNRISE			SUNSET			DAYTIME LENGTH
	1st		7:36 am CST			5:45 pm CST			10 hr 9 min
	31st		7:30 am CST			6:11 pm CST			10 hr 41 min
Moon Phases		NEW		FIRST QTR.			FULL			LAST QTR.
		17th		24th			1st			9th
		9:47 am CST		1:17 pm CST			8:51 am CST			8: 23 am CST

Early on in the month of December, the Texas Agricultural Extension Service reported that harvesting efforts in South Texas were being hindered because of muddy field conditions. The Extension horticulturist Lynn Brandenberger of Weslaco said, "we are actually behind in most crops because of the rain slowing fall planting." Two of the crops that were behind schedule were cabbage and winter greens harvests. On the other hand, Brandenberger also said besides recharging area watersheds and saving irrigation reserves, the rain improved soil moisture.

On a positive note, the citrus production was up even though this summer's drought was horrible on the citrus groves. Extension horticulturist Julian Sauls of Weslaco said, "groves went virtually without water from July to the first of September, and right when it got critical, we got rains."

By the middle of the month, the Texas spinach crop was finally gaining momentum despite late planting and unfavorable moisture conditions. Joe Pena, Extension economist in Uvalde, said, "the wet weather caused more disease problems due to higher humidity, but producers did not have to irrigate as much." The mid-December growing conditions were also very kind to the turnip greens crop and the cabbage crop. In the Panhandle, wheat was making good growth due to the good moisture conditions and the above normal temperatures associated with a more or less southerly flow from the Gulf.

Nearing the end of December a strong southward advancing cold surge brought winter conditions to the entire state. The Extension beef cattle specialist Ted McCollum of Amarillo said, "this type of abrupt change in weather always effects cattle feedlot production adversely, but the loss will not be very significant. Sugarcane harvest continued in South Texas with the sugar content being reported as being very poor. Spider mites also continued to infest some of the oat fields in West Central Texas. Hopefully this problem with bug infestations will decrease in magnitude as time wears on after the onset of the first real hard winter freeze in Texas. The producers of oat in West Central Texas were actually happy to some degree, hoping the freeze would end their difficulties with the spider mite infestations.
 

        Chris J. Gordon

                                       Material obtained from:
                                                                           TAMU Extension Crop, Livestock and Weather reports

Monthly Weather Outlook for January 1999

The 30-day outlook for the month of January indicates that temperatures will most likely be above normal for the entire state of Texas. The probabilities for warmer than normal temperatures increase southwestward from 33% in extreme northeastern Texas to a maximum of about 55% in the Trans Pecos region. The probabilities for January precipitation are similar to the probabilities for temperature across the state except for the fact that they are indicating Texas will receive below normal precipitation with the highest probabilities (~ 45%) in Western Texas.

Past Weather Events in January

January 10-12, 1918: The most severe blizzard since that of February 1899 occurred in Texas. The blizzard was accompanied by zero degree temperatures in North Texas and temperatures from 7 to 12 degrees below freezing along the lower coast.

January 4, 1946: A tornado near Lufkin, Angelina County and Nacogdoches, Nacogdoches County killed 13 persons and injured another 250 others. The damage was $2,050,000.

January 21-22, 1995:A combination of an arctic cold-air mass with a lee side trough and abundant gulf moisture brought heavy snows to the Texas Panhandle. The heaviest snows occurred in Roberts and Gray counties, with reports of five to eight inches, while other areas received four to six inches. The remainder of the Panhandle received one to three inches.