Texas Climate Report: February 2007

February 2007 was a very dry month for the entire state. El Nino conditions of the previous months brought some much needed rain to the drought affected areas of the state. However, as the El Nino weakened, conditions across the state this month were very dry. No station in the state received above average precipitation. In fact, Brownsville reported the highest percent of normal with only 76%. Moreover, Brownsville was the only station in the state that reported above 58% of their normal precipitation total. Six stations reported precipitation totals of less than 10% of normal. As a result, this was the driest February ever reported in Galveston; only 0.03" of rainfall was reported for the entire month, 1% of normal. In College Station and San Antonio, this February was the 2nd driest and 4th driest, respectively, of all time. In the Panhandle, all of the stations reported at least 50% of their normal totals, the most throughout the entire state, but still only slightly larger than half of their normal values. The southern and southeastern parts of the state received the least of amount of their normal total precipitation with values ranging from 1% in Galveston and 4% in Corpus Christi to 39% in Houston. Central Texas did not fare much better with the values in the area ranging from 7% in Austin and 5% in San Antonio to 23% in Waco. February 2007 could be one of the driest Februarys ever reported (data to be available later this month).

While precipitation for the state was far below average, mean temperatures were within a degree of average in most places. The coldest places were Amarillo, Houston and Galveston which were all 1.5°F below average. The southeast areas of the station were all below average, while the southern areas were all slightly above average. The warmest place in the state was Brownsville, where the mean temperature was 1.2°F above average. A strong cold front moved across the state on Feb. 15. The air behind the front was cold and dry and allowed temperatures to drop to record lows. Six stations, all in central or southeast Texas, reported record low temperature between the 16th and the 18th. Waco reported a record low of 16°F on the 16th. Houston and Port Arthur reported record lows on the 16th with values of 26°F and 25°F, respectively. College Station reported a record low on the 17th with a low temperature of 21°F. As the month moved on temperature warm up considerably, even setting record highs in the few locations near the end of the month. Corpus Christi set a record high on the 24th with a high temperature of 90°F. That was also the highest temperature reported during the month for the entire state. San Angelo also set a record high with a high temperature of 85°F on the 28th.

As for severe weather, February is usually a quiet month, and February 2007 was no exception. There were only three days with storm reports. However, three tornadoes were reported on the 23rd. For the entire month, there were 3 tornado reports, 6 hail reports, and 5 severe wind reports.

Monthly Summary for Selected Cities

Monthly Extremes

New Monthly Records

Climatic Averages for March