Coastal Bend Chronicle: The Bluest Blue Norther in Texas

Can’t really tell the date of the bluest or coldest “blue norther” in Texas because the systematic recording of weather data did not happen until about 1895. Prior to that, references to weather appeared only in personal accounts or journals of explorers and settlers. However, the use of the term “blue norther” is unique to Texas and has been in use since the early 1800s. It refers to a cold front from a mass of Artic air pushed south by the jet stream. The front can advance at speeds of 40 miles per hour and wind speeds in the front can reach 80 miles per hour. Northers are characterized by a steep drop in temperature, often from balmy conditions, accompanied by high winds and freezing rain, sleet or snow. They are followed in a day or so by clear skies and low temperatures. Temperature drops of 60 to70 degrees in a matter of hours have been seen in northers.

In 1855, Frederick Law Olmstead made an extended horseback trip through Texas and kept detailed records of meteorological observations in his journal, which he later published. He remarked on the speed and ferocity of his first norther as he approached New Braunfels, when the temperature “dropped 60 degrees in seven hours.” Olmstead also quoted the Hon. Ashbel Smith that the coldest temperature recorded in Galveston was 12 degrees in the winter of 1837-1838. Olmstead also gives a table of temperatures for Sisterdale that shows a minimum of 10 degrees at 7 AM on January 13, 1852.

The 1880s were a numbingly cold decade for Texas with freezes that reached into the Rio Grande Valley in 1880, 1883, 1886 and 1888. February 1895 had two Valley freezes, the first of which put temperatures in the low 20s and a record five inches of snow on the ground in Brownsville, also the last snow there. The really big freeze came to Texas in February 11, 1899 and set records in Texas and the United States which still stand. The country was already in the grips of a long cold spell when a fresh norther arrived on February 11. The temperature in Dallas dropped to minus eleven degrees and rose only to minus five the next day. Austin was at minus one and Cuero was at minus four degrees. The Texas Almanac gives the record low temperature for this date as minus 23 degrees in Tulia, Texas. Galveston reported eleven degrees and the bay froze over completely from the barrier islands to the mainland. Corpus Christi also registered eleven degrees with massive freezing of the bay and the Nueces River so solid you could walk across it.

The twentieth century has also had its share of frigid weather. In fact, the Texas Almanac gives a record-tying low temperature of minus 23 degrees to Seminole in central Texas on February 8, 1933. In 1918, 1930 and 1940, northers affected other parts of Texas, but did not reach the Rio Grande Valley. The decades of mild winters for the Valley ended in January 1951 with a norther that dropped temperature to around 20 degrees and destroyed the citrus crop and the trees. Other big freezes occurred in Texas in1962, 1983 and 1989. The winter of 1985 brought a freeze that destroyed the citrus trees in Florida as well.

Now our weather is documented on the media around the clock in excruciating detail. Quite a change from Texas’ frontier period in the 1800s when you just went about your business because there was nothing you could do about the weather and your tasks could not be delayed, e.g. milking the cows, feeding the chickens, etc. Also like growing up in Texas in the 1940-1950s (and earlier) without air conditioning. We endured it, but did not think it was so unbearable at the time.

Herndon Williams is affiliated with the Bayside Historical Society and the Refugio
County Historical Commission. He can be reached at coastalbendchronicle@yahoo.com