Unpredictable Weather In Texas

The climate plays the major role in how it affects the environment. As of late, the weather has gone from one extreme to the other. A “Weather Whiplash” is newest term to describe this phenomenon. Texas goes through an extreme drought than has torrential rainfall with flash flooding. Carbon emissions are the current suspect in the cause of the whiplash. After a three week drought in 2015 Texas received 2.6 billion gallons of rainwater. Texas hit a major on in 2015. The last summary of heavy precipitation change showed an increase of sixteen

With this many different type terrain there comes different types of weather and climate. Normally in Texas the temperatures usually don’t fluctuate that much. It’s normally colder north and warmer in the south, as well as, wetter in the east than the west. However, we will explore the weather and climate of Texas’ past. We will start in the decade of 1940’s and move to 50’s and 60’s, and discover the routes of past hurricanes, along with the rainfall and temperatures of the Upper Coast, South Central Texas and the Edwards Plateau (Nielsen-Gammon).

One fact that emphasizes this notion is that the Mexican Army encountered a sudden blizzard in route to Texas that began on the evening of February 13 and continued through the next day. The weather during this storm was severe enough to kill horses, mules, men and camp followers. However, the snowstorm did not extend into Texas. Two observers in Texas in 1836, William Fairfax Gray and Colonel Juan Almonte, both kept records of the weather in their journals. From their entries, information was gathered that reveals the weather at the time of the battle. A cold front arrived on the evening of February 25 that dropped the temperatures into the 30s. Prior to that, it had been "shirt sleeve" weather. It remained cold and rainy but warmed to nearly 60 degrees on February 29th. That night, a second cold front swept the region. The temperature gradually warmed over the next few days. It remained cool on March 6, but by March 8 Gray proclaimed "Fine weather". Any Texan should recognize this as a description of typical Texas weather (Texas A&M, 2016, N.P.).

The Texas Water Development Board reports that in 2015 over fifty inches of rainfall descended upon Travis county that year alone. With rainfall comes drainage water and its effects on the state of Texas and Texas residents. Texas’ drainage water laws are divided into three rules, common law rule, civil law rule, and reasonable use rule.

3) A heavy rain pour down the city of Houston on June 19, 2006. According to the article from NBC news, there was a lot of cars stall and many neighborhoods flooded. There was as much as, “10.5 inches of rain reported,” and in some areas there was six inches of rain which caused delays in airports. The Houston city is no stranger to floods yet the amount of rain that poured as such little time was surprising.

This storm quickly took over the area and showed people how unprepared for the storm they were. Actual temperature was -7 degrees Fahrenheit with wind shield factors of -50 to -60 degrees Fahrenheit. Visibility during the storm went to zero during the storm. This further complicated people trying to get back home or to pick someone up.

On January 20,2014. Dallas Texas was a bad weather. It was much snows, and the damage was broken cares and some houses. The police officer did not allow people to go outside because the risk was more effect. However, many people attempted to ride a car because the cause wanted to go the hospital.

Since 1990 Texas has seen a trend towards warmer and drier summers than usual. Texas which geographically sits in the south central part of the United States with an extensive border with the Gulf of Mexico gets its weather patterns from both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Researchers have shown that warmer than normal temperatures in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans often lead to drier than normal summers. The research also shows that these trends will last for more than 20 to 25 years. Since we have been in this weather pattern since 1990, (Hembreee), hopefully we are nearing the end of the dry cycle. However, Mother Nature is never predictable. Meteorologists are only able to speculate about a week in advanced with any certainty. The eastern Pacific Ocean cycles between three phases, the three phases are El Nino, La Nina, and Neutral phase. La Nina is cooling of the sea-surface temperatures and tends to bring more rain into the Gulf of Mexico and Texas. On the opposite

The tendency towards more intense precipitation events is projected to the future. The more precipitation, the more risk of flooding.More heavy downpours may increase the likelihood of property damage, travel delays and disruption in

Texas is very large and has several regions with different climates. In the west, it is very dry and in the east, it is very humid. Texas has three types of climate. The Gulf Coast area is usually mild with cool air from the coast. A thin strip along the Gulf of Mexico has marine weather and they can have hurricane warnings. The western area of Texas is usually dry with clear days and very cold temperature at night time. The eastern area has cold winters and hot summers. Average rainfall varies from 58 inches in the eastern part of the state to less than 10 inches in the western part of Texas yearly. Snowfall occurs in the northern plains area with an average of 15 inches yearly. (Compton’s by Britannica,

“Texas became a state in December 1845, participating in its first presidential election in 1848. Texas seceded from the Union in 1861 and was not included in the 1864 or 1868 elections. From 1872 through 1976, Texas went Democratic in the vast majority of elections. However, that changed in 1980, and Texas has sided with the Republicans ever since” (www.270towin.com). Unsurprisingly, Texas went red in this most recent presidential election, thus giving all 38 of their electoral college votes to President-elect Trump.

With defining the Texas climate I began with the northernmost area of land being the panhandle. Where within this region, the panhandle exhibits a Continental Steepe climate where there are “large variations in the magnitude of ranges in [both] daily temperature extremes and irregularly spaced rainfall”. Due to physical influences of North Texas such as its proximity to mountain barriers which subsequently blocks “moist air from oceans from reaching the steppe” the area results in a region that experiences low humidity in its air quality in the high plain area of the state. The

These temperatures result in large snow storms dumping eight to sixteen inches of snow at a time. Even with such large snowfall, most schools in major cities don’t shut down for the day. Instead classes are delayed til the middle of the morning, allowing for snow plows to get out and clear the roads. The only schools that normally close during snow storms are those located in the most rural locations of the state. Rainfall throughout the year averages about four inches a month, just falling in different forms. Summer months usually produce warm temperatures in the seventies, warming water temperatures up enough to go to coastal beaches. New York is often hit by the remains of hurricanes that have traveled up the east coast. These dump several inches of water on the state at a time. New York doesn’t have the standard tornado thought of by Oklahomans, but with the right mixture over the Great Lakes region, the weather often produces water spouts. These spouts are usually harmless forms of tornadoes, with wind speeds reaching sixty miles an hour, and often die out quickly. While the far northern parts of the state can be different, the state of New York as a whole has a fairly consistent climate from year to year.

more flooding( the weather company). Many towns in Houston Texas have been overflown by the rain. People are trapped in there houses. Some areas in Houston Texas have had up to 50 inches of rain(the weather company). Several out of state people are brining there own boats to Houston Texas, because there helping people who are trapped indoors by the flood(extreme weather). Many people who live there in Houston are rescuing animals, there risking there own life's to save save animals (CNN.com). Houston is setting up many shelters so people can get, clothes, water and food and etc. And Houston is providing places to sleep at the shelter(hurricane Harvey ). It will be a while before Houston Texas can fully recover from this terrible tragedy.

The two ways that these articles are similar and different are that both of the articles discuss the amount of rain that trampled Houston that night. To prove this thought the authors stated: “For five days, the city was deluged in an historic amount of rain. When the skies cleared, nearly 52 inches of rain had fallen.” The other article is Newsela:” It dumped a huge amount of rain on and around Houston, Texas.” Both of these articles talked about the amount of rainfall because TFK says that 52 inches of rain fell, and Newsela says that a lot of rain fell on and around Texas. Even though they don’t say the same things, overall they both talked about how much rain fell in Houston, Texas.