The Coldest Night in Texas

The Coldest Night in Texas History

If you think it's cold this week, let us tell you a story of record cold temperatures that were experienced in the past history of Texas.

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