Quote:
Originally Posted by Slite
Ack! 20 degrees in two hours? How is that even possible?
|
It's our unique geography. High mountains on the west side act as a funnel for artic air flowing down from the polar regions, with flat plains all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico. At the same time, The Gulf of Mexico is only 500 KM away, with a water temp varying from 30-32 C summer to 10-15 in winter. To top it off, to the southwest, is the Mexican desert, which is 25-30 C this time of year (40 + in the summer).
So which way is the wind blowing? From the gulf, highs around 20 C, lows around 10 C and moist. From the Mexican desert, 25-30 C with near 0 C at night, and very dry. From the West, over the mountains, off the Pacific, high winds and modest cold, due to compression heating as the air falls down from the mountain peaks, 10 C for highs and near 0 C for lows, and 50-70 KM winds. And then there is the Howling Blue Northers (They really look blue as the cold air/cloud mix comes roaring down.), highs around 0 C and lows - well, dial a number. In the great freeze of Christmas 1983, in San Antonio (which is 500 KM South of where I live now) it spend 72 hours at -9 C.
Welcome to Texas.