Month: January 2026

Yes, it’s cold. Yes, we got sleet, graupel, and a smear of snow. But we got lucky, no freezing rain.

We did on the other hand get some rain, 2.5 inches just before the cold hit.

Yup, we should have emptied the rain gauge before the cold hit. We may need to replace the rain gauge.

We have ice on the roads, and a weekend where it was Just. Stay. In!

This is not what you want to be driving on. Here in central Texas, they may de-ice major roads, but they are not going to bother with side roads. We just don’t have the resources.

Today, Monday we are warming. Right now its just barely above freezing, 33 degrees, and roads are melting. But tonight we are due for more cold, like 16 degrees cold. Anything wet will refreeze again. But while the sun is up, things will get better.

This week will not be a great weather week. Where today will hopefully warm to 36, then fall to 15, tomorrow we will be another warm day, but again the night will be below freezing.

Actually, the rest of the week will be warming day, but below freezing nights. Thursday the nights are due to hit freezing, but Friday night is back down to 25. Next week, in February, we should return to 50-60 degree days and nights above freezing.

My dog is not happy with the weather. He doesn’t like the cold. The birds have been feeding heavily from the feeders. I even gave them additional feed in shallow saucers, actually they were plant saucers I put a brick in to weigh down.

We will see how the rest of the week plays out. Will we get warm, will the nights be that cold? Will next week actually stay warm? Who know.

Well at around 1:30AM a storm began coming in. We had thunder and lightning. This morning we woke up to 34 degrees. That was the same temperature we had at 3:30AM, I had woken up and checked the weather station.

It’s been a slow drop in temperature since. It’s now 12:30PM, just half past noon and the temperature is down to 26. It’s just been a slow slide down.

One thing we did this morning was put more bird seed out. We have a large feeder, on a two hook shepherds hook. It’s situated so we can see it from the dining/eating area of the house. We also have two smaller dish type feeds on railings. This morning I added seed to the two smaller dishes, and partially filled a plant pot saucer with seed, it has a low lip and is about 10″ in diameter (right now with a brick in the middle). I put it on the floor of the patio, again situated so we can easily watch it.

Even though we do have squirrels, right now with the cold we have a lot of birds outside on the feeders. The patio is covered, probably about 11×10 feet squarish. My dogs small water bowl currently has a small amount of water in it. Hopefully it doesn’t freeze over, but there’s not much water in it.

We are currently forecast for freezing rain, ice (could be 1/4-1/2 inch), for the weekend. Basically, if you don’t have to go outside, don’t. Don’t go out for a drive, put a coat and maybe booties on your dog before walking, cover your plants, pipes, etc. Right now I even have water dripping in a bathroom so I don’t have to worry about it later. It’s done. Call me paranoid, I’m okay with that. I’ve been called a Girl Scout. I’ll wear that badge proudly if it keeps me from getting house damage, or other winter problems.

One concern I do have is that this weather has as I recall usually shown up in February. If I’m right about that, it’s a bit early. So will we have more cold weather this year? Will we have more coming in February? Is it a long winter ahead? Is this going to be it, and we’re done with winter weather here in Central Texas?

Who knows?

It’s now January 22, 2026. Texas weather is really something to behold. We’ve had interesting, to say the least, weather. We’ve had warm, not much rain, weather. Many days have been warm, then we would have a short lived cold night. And we have had cold nights, as around freezing nights. But then it warms back up. In many ways it’s even been pleasant.

All that comes to an end this weekend. It’s now Thursday and all we know is we have Winter Weather Warnings. When exactly it will hit is the only question. As of right now they are saying cold wind chills, as low at 5 degrees below zero possible in isolated areas. Most of the rest of us need to be prepared for single digit wind chills.

In addition we are looking at possible/probable freezing rain. Freezing rain is when the moisture (rain) is supercooled. When it hits a surface, tree limbs, cars, roads, etc. it freezes on contact.

As for our temperatures, tonight is a low of 56. It hardly seems likely to get that cold. But tomorrow Friday the day time should hit mid 60’s, maybe 68, but the night time will drop down to around freezing, think 35 or 36 but maybe as low as freezing. In addition, we may expect rain. That should make for fun weather and road conditions. Saturday the temperature continues to fall. The high Saturday may be low 40’s but could be down to just above freezing, the the night time around 20. Yes, that is well below freezing. Saturday is snow, ice, freezing rain change. Then comes Sunday. Sunday we look at a high of just below freezing, think 31, and a low of 16 or thereabout. Hello cold. You had best prepare you house for the cold, and they do mean cold.

Monday the daytime high’s climb above freezing to 38, but we can still expect lows of 19 but hopefully a bit above that. By Tuesday we will be out of cold. We will have daytime highs of 50, and evening lows of just above freezing.

How will it all play out? We don’t know. We’ll know when it happens. As of right now we’ve done out best to get this house winterized and ready for this weather event.