What's With This Wonky Texas Weather and Just How Warm was Dec.

I've heard it said that if you don't like the weather here in Texas, just wait 5 minutes. It seems that's never been more true than it is right now.

Currently we are seeing overnight lows in the 20's and 30's, with afternoon highs in the 50's and 60's. I even see some projected highs in the 70's in the next week. We go from freezing cold to almost short sleeve weather in the course of a day.

Flashback

Let's revisit early 2021. Remember January's snow storm? Not just a few flakes, but a literal white out at my house.

That was January 10, 2021, and I thought that would be all the snow we would see for the winter seeing how Central Texas just doesn't see snow very often.

Boy was I wrong. February brought on record cold temps that saw the Texas Power Grid shut down and leave people without power and water for days.

Merry Christmas

Flash-forward to December 2021, and you'd think that Mother Nature got her seasons confused. Texas saw the warmest December we've had since 1889, 132 years according to state climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon.

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I spent Christmas Day in Dallas and passed much of the day sitting on the back patio soaking in the sun. Temps on Christmas reached the lower to mid 80's. A Merry Christmas indeed!

According to a Texas A&M news post, Nielsen-Gammon said,

“It’s like the entire state moved south for the winter. Amarillo got Dallas’s normal temperatures, Dallas got Corpus Christi’s normal temperatures, and Austin got Brownsville’s normal temperatures. Not only is it by far the warmest December since the beginning of comprehensive weather records, it will probably also turn out to be the warmest winter month, period.”

Nielsen-Gammon said once the data comes in, he thinks that December 2021 will see an average temp of about 12 degrees higher than the long-term average.

Climate Change?

Yea, probably according to Nielsen-Gammon, although he did say that December's warmth wasn't caused by global warming but may have contributed to it.

Whatever the case, I'm good with a warm winter. The older I get, the more I dislike being cold. I can deal with it when i need to, but wearing shorts and getting some sun on Christmas Day felt really good.

I'd be up for that again.

LOOK: Take a Tour of Santa's North Pole Estate

Santa's house at The North Pole is absolutely beautiful. The Clauses remodeled in 2013 and the new additions are sure to get you into the holiday spirit.

Top 20 Restaurants Central Texans Wish Would Come to Temple

A while back, I asked the good people of Temple if they could picture a good restaurant to fill the lot on North General Bruce Drive where the soon to be torn down Long John Silver's stood.

This was before it was announced that a Dutch Bros. Coffee location would open there (which was one of the places I predicted as a contender in our article).

So now Dutch Bros. is open in that spot, but the responses to my survey were interesting because they paint a picture of just how diverse Temple's population is. People recommended some familiar restaurants with locations in the surrounding area, but also a few I'd never even heard of.

Here are the top 20 results of the survey. Let's see what the good people of Temple are craving!