If you think it was cold this week, let us tell you a story of record cold temperatures that were experienced in Texas history.
February 1899 was a very cold month, thanks in part to a bitterly cold outbreak from the 11th through the 13th. In fact, nothing in the history of Texas quite compares to February 12th 1899.
Some of the coldest weather to ever hit Texas occurred on February 12th of that year. The lowest temperature ever recorded in the state occurred at Tulia in Swisher County in the extreme southern Texas Panhandle. The thermometer dropped to 23 degrees below zero. However,
there were unofficial reports that were even colder. Low temperatures
of 30 degrees below zero were measured that night at Wolf Creek and at a site southeast of Perryton, both in Ochiltree County in the northern Panhandle. This cold air spread throughout the state with reports of a thin layer of ice coating most of Galveston Bay.
The all-time record low temperature that was established at Tulia was tied years later when Seminole, in Gaines County in West Texas,
reported a temperature of 23 degrees below zero on February 8, 1933.
Many Texas cities established all-time record low temperatures In February 1899. Below is a list of the record lows at various cities across the state.
Abilene………….9 below zero…set in 1947
Amarillo………..16 below zero…set in 1899
Austin…………..2 below zero…set in 1949
Beaumont……..10 degrees……set in 1906
Brownsville……..12 degrees……set in 1899
Corpus Christi…..11 degrees……set in 1899
Dallas/Fort Worth….8 below zero…set in 1899
Del Rio…………10 degrees……set in 1989
El Paso………….8 below zero…set in 1962
Galveston………..8 degrees….. Set in 1899
Houston………….5 degrees……set in 1930 and 1940
Lubbock…………17 below zero…set in 1933
Midland/Odessa…..11 below zero…set in 1985
San Angelo……….4 below zero…set in 1989
San Antonio………0 degrees……set in 1949
Waco…………….5 below zero…set in 1949 and 1899
Wichita Falls……12 below zero…set in 1947