winters in houston? (Arlington, Center, Howe: pine, best, palm trees)

[gameguy56]

What are they like?

Are they like a perpetual fall or spring in the north?

[tstone]

You said "winter" and "Houston" in the same phrase. That's funny.

Generally it's either sunny and dry like it is now, or it's windy and rainy miserable. About 10-15 degrees colder either way you look at it. If you're in the south half of town it usually never freezes, hence the South Texas-type plants... Oleander, Palm trees and Yaupon are pretty big and would burn up fast in a freeze. On the north side where you find your pine trees it gets a little bit colder. No California microclimates, though.

When it gets cold & wet (below 40), it can be very uncomfortable.

"Deep freeze warning" on the weather usually means it'll be about 25-30 that night.

[russhey]

It will snow once in a blue moon in Houston, but really there's no freezing temperatures for more than one week out of the year. You know what always amazed me, I moved from Houston to Arlington (DFW area) and there is a HUGE difference in winters between the two places.

[FL-NC-AZ-TX]

Winters are usually cool, but rarely cold. High temperatures are, on a typical day, in the lower 60s and low temperatures in the lower 40s. However, there are a fair share of mornings with freezing weather (especially on the northern side of town) and every now and then we can experience a hard freeze (below 27-degrees). On some winters snow and/or ice can reach the area, but usually we do not see much accumulation if it does. As with the freezes, the further north you are, the more likely you will be to see ice/snow on any given year (except for rare events like the 2004 snowstorm when most of the snow fell south of town). Overall I would say that on average Houston's winter is colder than places such as southern CA, southern (non-mountainous regions) of AZ, southern TX and Florida...but it is warmer than most other areas of the country.

If you would like to know more about the rare "cold-side" to Houston winter's, you can check out the following link>>> Houston Freeze Information -Weather Research Center, February 5, 1998 <<< It will detail some of the coldest events, and give snowfall amounts, etc. It is pretty interesting to look at.

And here is an interesting video link showing just what it was like during the record-breaking cold snap of December 1989:
YouTube - Good Morning Houston Weather Segment, 12/22/89 (keep in mind that this type of weather is extremely rare down here and should not be expected during a typical winter)

[SkyeAnjel]

It is 44 degrees and I am freezing..I hate cold weather...will crawl under blankets until 10:00 whent the winter weather warms up....I only like this on Christmas for my fire.

[Watchful]

The best thing about the winters is that they only come in "spurts." You may have a week where you have to bundle up (comparatively of course). Then the next week the high may be in the 60's.

The averages do not tell the whole story because they smooth out the extremes. I went back and looked at January 2007 - probably pretty typical - from the chron.com weather archives.

During that month, the high temps were distributed as follows:
2 days in the 30s
5 days in the 40s
10 days in the 50s
8 days in the 60s
5 days in the 70s
1 day in the 80s!!
Lows were distributed as follows:
15 days in the 30s (2 days at 32 degrees were the lowest)
10 days in the 40s
5 days in the 50s
1 day in the 60s

Because there are always a few cold, bitter chilly days - we tend to remember those and forget all those very mild winter days!

[I LOVE NORTH CAROLINA]

In my opinion we don't have winter in Houston, but I am very warm natured. It may get cool for a day or two, but usually after that it warms back into the 70's
which makes me unhappy because I love cold weather.

[tstone]

Originally Posted by SkyeAnjel

It is 44 degrees and I am freezing..I hate cold weather...will crawl under blankets until 10:00 whent the winter weather warms up....I only like this on Christmas for my fire.

The weather isn't that cold now, and it should be close to 80 in the daytime this weekend. I set the heater on for the night time just in case it gets too cold but it hasn't turned on once yet. In cooler weather like this, sleeping next to a hot water bottle like this one works wonders:

http://www.jphpk.gov.my/English/dachshund.jpg (broken link)

Just be sure you keep it indoors all the time and wash it twice a week!

(Lucky you - being able to roll out of bed at 10 on a weekday!)

[FL-NC-AZ-TX]

I hit 39 here in NW Harris county last night. Definitely a nice little tase of winter!According to the national weather service, it looks like tonight should feature more of the same.

[Linza]

Nope. It gets almost to freezing, and it rains.
And rains.

...and rains.