February is a tumultuous month across our area. It is the king of superlatives in regards to temperature extremes and snowfalls. After such a fast and furious start to winter, could it [winter] really end "just like that?"
Intuitively speaking, probably not.
February is a month where the reining champion, Winter, is challenged for superiority by Spring. The sun angle is low but increasing rapidly. The days are short but are adding upwards of a minute thirty of daylight every single day. The clashing airmasses of warm and cold often give rise to a higher than average tornado probability in Houston.
February has seen temperatures as low as 6 degrees on two consecutive nights in 1899 and the largest, by far, snowfall in Houston history. A staggering 20 inches of snow fell on Valentines Day 1895. If you added up all the snowfall totals after 1895 in Houston and combined them, it would take the next 83 years of snow totals to equal that single day amount.
Houston has also been sweltering hot, too! Temperatures, on three separate occasions, have soared into the low 90s, the last time as recently as 1996.
After the long, cold and eventful winter we've had in Houston, the most eventful in terms of snow and ice since 1973, it only stands to reason that we'll see a few more freezes before Spring reins in Jack Frost. The latest freeze on record is April 10th.
And then there's March. Known for Spring Break and windy days with cool mornings and warm afternoons, hard freezes have snuffed out a many a plants. Looking at the records, nearly every single day in March has record lows in the low to mid 20s.
I know we're all biting at the bit to break out the shorts and get the spring gardens planted but if I were you, I'd wait just a few more weeks.
Using my grandmother's adage, "it's not safe until after Easter."
Looking at the long range pattern, there could be another cold weather outbreak this coming weekend but it remains to be seen if we'll hit freezing here in Houston. Things are beginning to look up as models are picking up on a spring-thaw by the end of February but then again, model depictions that far out are as helpful as that ridiculous rodent in Pennsylvania -- Punxsa-something Phil.
