Did You Know?

February 12, 1899, the temperature dropped all the way to minus 23 degrees in the town of TULIA in our Panhandle. Reports from that time say the extreme “norther” that ripped through killed 40,000 head of cattle during that night! That February 11–13 cold spell in the Tulia area (Swisher County) affected all the Southern Panhandle area.

February 8, 1933, saw temperatures also drop as low as minus 23 degrees in Gaines County and the West Texas town of Seminole!

These were official Weather Bureau records. Unofficially, but likely accurate, were reports from Wolf Creek and at a site southeast of Perryton in Ochiltree Country in the Northern Panhandle area of 30 degrees below zero (minus 30 degrees) that same night.

And reports stated that a coating of ice even coated much of Galveston Bay.

Other reported lows through the years are as follow: 1947 – minus 9– Abilene; 1899 – minus 16 – Amarillo; 1949–minus 2 – Austin; 1906 – 10 degrees above – Beaumont; 1899 – 12 degrees above – Brownsville; 1899 – 11 degrees above – Corpus Christi; 1899 – minus 8 – Dallas/Ft. Worth; 1989 – 10 degrees above – Del Rio – 1962 – minus 8 – El Paso; 1899 – 8 degrees above – Galveston; 1930 & 1940 – 5 degrees above–Houston; 1933 – minus 17 – Lubbock; 1985 – minus 11 – Midland/ Odessa; 1989 – minus 4 – San Angelo; 1949 – 0 degrees – San Antonio; 1949 & 1899 – minus 5 – Waco; 1947 – minus 12 – Wichita Falls.