Houston Prepares for Record Early Snowfall: Up to 6 Inches Possible

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In summary: Houston is so weird.In summary, Houston is preparing for the earliest snowfall ever recorded and some areas may see up to a half a foot of snow.
  • #1
D H
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http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6750042.html
Houston braces for at least 2 inches of snow
Preparations under way, and some in Houston area may even see half a foot of the white stuff

Houston is on track Friday to break a record with the earliest snowfall ever recorded in the city's history. Forecasters are still hedging their bets, but say the most likely scenario is 1 to 2 inches of widespread snowfall beginning Friday afternoon.

Some areas could get up to a half a foot.​

The date on the article is Dec. 3, 2009, so nope, tomorrow is *not* April Fools.

Dang!
 
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  • #2
Houston averages less than .5 inches of snow per year. So 6 inches would be at least a 12 year supply of snow.
 
  • #3
Stupid global warming...
 
  • #4
Wow. There was a light dusting (by my standards, anyhow) of snow one afternoon one time when I was in Houston and half the cars on the road slid off. The people working in the building I was working in just about lost their minds in panic when they saw the snowfall. This should prove special.
 
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  • #5
We see snow about once every four or five years. Maybe.

Except last year. It snowed on December 10, an inch or so. Christmas 2004 some parts got three inches. The official snowfall was zero for 2004 because the airport was just north of the snow zone. The last time before that: 1994.I can't resist: Happy Global Warming Day!
 
  • #6
Honestly, there isn't much that can immobilize the Southern United States like a good snow.
 
  • #7
Yep. We are collectively idiots.

That said, our snow is dang slippery. It is raining now and getting colder. When the snow does come it will be right at freezing and the pavement will be nice and wet and cold.

Pile on top of that the fact that we are idiots in the snow. Lots of spinning of the tires, no idea of counter steering or how to pull out of a spin, half the loons drive at 5 MPH and the other half speed out of frustration.
 
  • #8
Our winter in the NE is a bit mild.

I think our winter moved to Tx.

Please return it. :biggrin:
 
  • #9
... and it started already! There are some very big, and very wet, globs of whiteness falling from the sky. No accumulation, of course. The globs turn into water the instant they hit the ground. The temperature is currently 35° F, and falling.
 
  • #10
It is supposed to snow in North Mississippi this Saturday. I am not afraid of the guys that drive 5 mph in the snow/ice; it's the guys who don't know to slow down that scare me. We're all driving 30 on a icy road and here comes Mr. Painfully Unaware who's driving 75 and wondering why everyone else is driving so darn slow.
 
  • #11
Snow in Houston? I thought something was weird when snowstorms struck my home town in China in the middle of November, before any snow fell in Toronto. But 12 inches of snow in Houston definitely takes the cake!

BTW, it STILL hasn't snowed yet in Toronto.
 
  • #12
Other than a light dusting the day I headed to NJ after Thanksgiving, I have yet to see snow here. We should have already had a few snowfalls, but it's hard to get snow when the temperature is so abnormally warm! Why does Houston get snow before we do! :frown:
 
  • #13
Astronuc said:
Our winter in the NE is a bit mild.

I think our winter moved to Tx.

Please return it. :biggrin:
We got heavy rains and 50+ degrees yesterday morning, then the sun came out and the temps climbed to the mid-60s. Sunny again today and pushing 50 deg. It feels like early October.

I want our old winters back - it got really cold, with stretches of zero and below-zero weather, and the dry arctic air out of Canada suppressed the snow-fall. The last couple winters have been unseasonably warm with over 10' of snow each year. Not good.
 
  • #14
Snow's hit with a vengeance here today for the first time this season. That means we have to deal with at least a week of people driving as if they've never seen snow before even though we do this each and every year. It's a phenomenon, I tell you.
 
  • #15
Granted it's Houston and they don't get much snow, but it's kind of funny they are bracing for 2 inches of snow. In Utah that probably wouldn't even be mentioned on the news.
 
  • #16
I moved from upstate NY to near Houston recently... and it's insane right now. All of the schools are shutting down early due to the chance that this rain will turn icy. Meanwhile I haven't taken the winter boots and jacket out of my trunk yet.

I swear when I left NY at the end of June we had had 2 days of Summer (in April, no less) and the rest was cold and rainy. Now that I'm down here we've had nothing but rain, and it's currently warmer up in NY. I still prefer this to gulf coast Texas in July though...
 
  • #17
D H said:
Pile on top of that the fact that we are idiots in the snow. Lots of spinning of the tires, no idea of counter steering or how to pull out of a spin, half the loons drive at 5 MPH and the other half speed out of frustration.

Driving on I-45 will be a treat. :smile:
 
  • #18
kote said:
I swear when I left NY at the end of June we had had 2 days of Summer (in April, no less) and the rest was cold and rainy. Now that I'm down here we've had nothing but rain, and it's currently warmer up in NY.
When did you move here? The weather has been quite nice for the last couple of months, the last couple of days excluded. This is abnormal, very abnormal. More often than not, Christmas Day is shirt sleeve weather.
I still prefer this to gulf coast Texas in July though...
Yep. We have three seasons in Houston: Summer, July, and August. I've been down here for 23 years now, and I still have a tough time with July and August.
 
  • #19
D H said:
When did you move here? The weather has been quite nice for the last couple of months, the last couple of days excluded. This is abnormal, very abnormal. More often than not, Christmas Day is shirt sleeve weather.

Okay, there were a few good months in there after July and a cloudy stretch :smile:. I'm actually in Beaumont for now. July was quite a shock, and that ever-present sulfur smell didn't help anything when the humidity was 100% and the temperature was approaching 110.
D H said:
Yep. We have three seasons in Houston: Summer, July, and August. I've been down here for 23 years now, and I still have a tough time with July and August.

I was surprised, but that's what everyone down here has said. I haven't found a single person who is used to it.
 
  • #20
We officially have ice falling from the sky... lol. I thought the weather was supposed to be warmer down here. What a disappointment.

My coworkers are starting to make some frantic phone calls to children etc.
 
  • #21
It *is* supposed to be warmer down here.

Check where your pipes come into your house. In many houses down here, the pipes are exposed before they come in.
 
  • #22
D H said:
It *is* supposed to be warmer down here.

Check where your pipes come into your house. In many houses down here, the pipes are exposed before they come in.

Thanks... I live in an overpriced apartment complex right now. Fortunately, it's not my problem if things start to break :smile:. No one actually lives in Beaumont, so these places are all packed (hence the overpriced bit). It's one more month and on to Atlanta for me.

It looks like everyone is pretty paranoid about things freezing at the moment though. I see quite a few cars idling needlessly in the parking lot. Everyone is super edgy. Can't be too careful :biggrin:!

The thing I am kind of worried about is getting hit on the drive home. I don't trust you crazy Texans.
 
  • #23
I love the snow! I was standing outside the office with one of the sales reps drinking coffee and enjoying every bit of it. Not looking forward to the drive home. Half my vendors have already went home, so I think I just might do the same.
 
  • #24
I just moved to Corpus Christi Texas for 6 months from PA. Everyone has been freaking out about the possible snow. It hasn't snowed yet but there was some sleet. I went to the bank on my lunch break and saw two accidents in a 4 mile drive. Everytime it rains I see multiple accidents, I don't want to see what it is going to be like in the snow.
 
  • #25
I sure hope they've been trimming the trees DH, all that snow is going to break branches and tear down power lines.

Good luck!
 
  • #26
Astronuc said:
Our winter in the NE is a bit mild.

I think our winter moved to Tx.

Please return it. :biggrin:

Shhh!
 
  • #27
I'm actually looking forward to that storm arriving in DC Saturday. The western suburbs may get up to 5 inches tomorrow!
 
  • #28
GeorginaS said:
Snow's hit with a vengeance here today for the first time this season. That means we have to deal with at least a week of people driving as if they've never seen snow before even though we do this each and every year. It's a phenomenon, I tell you.

That's how I always felt when I lived in MI. People seemed to act completely surprised when it snowed every winter, and all I could think was, "It's MICHIGAN, it's SUPPOSED to snow a LOT every winter, isn't it?!"
 
  • #29
We didn't get any snow down here in southern Texas. :cry: But I did here there was some a little more north of me although it melted right away.
 
  • #30
Well I have good news to report. My small goldfish pond (plus one saved crawfish from our last boil) has had no casualties from the freeze. My kids have seen more snow in two years than I did for about 30. Here is a picture of one of those Texas snow babies your hear about. This is my youngest enjoying the snow.
 

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  • #31
We have snow here today. Of course, we're supposed to have snow this time of year, I just hadn't paid any attention to the forecast to know it was coming. So much for my plans to put up my outside Christmas decorations today. :frown: I can probably still put out the lawn ornaments if the ground hasn't frozen yet, but I don't think I'm going to fuss with the lights that get hung from the gutters (I have a pole for it so don't have to climb on a ladder but I think I might freeze before the job is done...with lawn ornaments, I can stop any time). Perhaps I'll limit lights to going up around the front door this year. It'll save me from having my Christmas lights up until March. :biggrin:

The snowplowers seem to be going crazy today. I've heard them pass by about 6 times in the last hour, and it's not snowing that hard! It only looks like 1 to 2 inches of accumulation so far, so I have no idea what the plows are plowing. But, this is much better than the old development I lived in where they MIGHT get around to plowing the ski slope drive into the place (the one with boulders at the bottom to keep you from careening over a cliff) once, at night, AFTER everyone returning home at rush hour had packed the snow down to a sheet of ice and everyone else was parked in front of the houses at the bottom of the hill because you couldn't drive up it anymore. At least if they're doing such a good job of plowing for a light snow here, I won't have to worry so much about getting in and out of the neighborhood on snow days (don't know about the rest of the winding, narrow, hilly roads between here and work yet, but I think I found a flatter route to take on snow days).
 
  • #32
Ronnin said:
Well I have good news to report. My small goldfish pond (plus one saved crawfish from our last boil) has had no casualties from the freeze. My kids have seen more snow in two years than I did for about 30. Here is a picture of one of those Texas snow babies your hear about. This is my youngest enjoying the snow.

:rofl: I can't believe you saved a crawfish...hahaha!

I used to have a small fish pond that would freeze every year. I really don't know if it would freeze solid, though. Yet year after year, the fish* I put there to eat mosquito larvae would survive, even thrive.

*I think they were just common goldfish - they were 11-for-$1 "feeder fish" that you get at fish stores as dinner for other fish :eek:.
 
  • #33
Ronnin said:
Well I have good news to report. My small goldfish pond (plus one saved crawfish from our last boil) has had no casualties from the freeze. My kids have seen more snow in two years than I did for about 30. Here is a picture of one of those Texas snow babies your hear about. This is my youngest enjoying the snow.
What a cutie Ronnin!
 
  • #34
lisab said:
:rofl: I can't believe you saved a crawfish...hahaha!

I used to have a small fish pond that would freeze every year. I really don't know if it would freeze solid, though. Yet year after year, the fish* I put there to eat mosquito larvae would survive, even thrive.

*I think they were just common goldfish - they were 11-for-$1 "feeder fish" that you get at fish stores as dinner for other fish :eek:.
I have a backyard pond that is very deep, and the first year we lived here, I trapped about a dozen dace (chubs) from the brook running across the property and put them in the pond to see if they would survive. Three years on, they're about 9-10" long, with generations of offspring ranging from tiny minnows up to about their size. The biggest danger to the fish is a local great blue heron who has figured out that this a great place for lunch.
 
  • #35
Evo said:
What a cutie Ronnin!

Thank you very much. Don't let him fool you, he's pure evil.
 
<h2>1. What is causing the record early snowfall in Houston?</h2><p>The record early snowfall in Houston is being caused by a combination of cold air from the north and moisture from the Gulf of Mexico.</p><h2>2. How much snow is expected to fall in Houston?</h2><p>Up to 6 inches of snow is possible in Houston, which is significantly more than the average annual snowfall of 0.1 inches.</p><h2>3. When was the last time Houston experienced a snowfall of this magnitude?</h2><p>The last time Houston experienced a snowfall of this magnitude was in December 1989, when 4.4 inches of snow fell on the city.</p><h2>4. Will this early snowfall have any long-term effects on the city?</h2><p>It is unlikely that this early snowfall will have any long-term effects on the city. Snow in Houston is rare and typically melts quickly, so any impacts should be minimal.</p><h2>5. How are residents and local officials preparing for the snowstorm?</h2><p>Residents and local officials are preparing for the snowstorm by stocking up on supplies, such as food and water, and making sure their homes and vehicles are prepared for cold weather. The city is also taking steps to clear roads and keep residents safe during the snowfall.</p>

1. What is causing the record early snowfall in Houston?

The record early snowfall in Houston is being caused by a combination of cold air from the north and moisture from the Gulf of Mexico.

2. How much snow is expected to fall in Houston?

Up to 6 inches of snow is possible in Houston, which is significantly more than the average annual snowfall of 0.1 inches.

3. When was the last time Houston experienced a snowfall of this magnitude?

The last time Houston experienced a snowfall of this magnitude was in December 1989, when 4.4 inches of snow fell on the city.

4. Will this early snowfall have any long-term effects on the city?

It is unlikely that this early snowfall will have any long-term effects on the city. Snow in Houston is rare and typically melts quickly, so any impacts should be minimal.

5. How are residents and local officials preparing for the snowstorm?

Residents and local officials are preparing for the snowstorm by stocking up on supplies, such as food and water, and making sure their homes and vehicles are prepared for cold weather. The city is also taking steps to clear roads and keep residents safe during the snowfall.

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