Texas Tidbits: A White Christmas.....In South Texas!

Christmas Day 2004, Port Aransas, Texas

We finally got our first good snowfall of the season yesterda y, last night and into this morning. Total snowfall? About 6 inches, so it wasn't too bad. The schools were even open. This type of weather is the norm up here in New England at this time of year. I have spent many a Christmas in locations that you'd expect to at least see snow on the ground on Christmas Day - Maine, Ohio and the mountains of Colorado. But I have never seen it snow on Christmas Day. What if I had stayed in Texas? Snow? In Texas? On Christmas Day? Not. Gonna. Happen. Right? Wrong you are blizzard breath.

I left Texas for Colorado in early November, 2004. Wanna guess what happened about six weeks later? You got it. It snowed on Christmas Day! In Port Aransas and points south! Many of the cities in that area of Texas had not recorded snowfall in over one hundred years. Much less on Christmas Day. Ever! Yup, parts of South Texas experienced the first white Christmas in recorded history. I am officially jealous now. I looked forward to having some snowfall on Christmas Day at 8600 feet above sea level high in the Rockies. Christmas arrived and nothing. Nada. Bupkis. However, back home, in deepest South Texas they saw it snow on Christmas Day for the first time in history. Here's photographic proof.  I could cry. But I'll man up and .....no I won't. I am gonna cry! I might as well pour more salt into my white-less Christmas wounds. Thefreelibrary.com does the salt-pouring when they so cruelly remind me of "records being established. 24-hour snowfall records were set in Victoria with 12.5 inches and Corpus Christi with 4.4 inches, both of which had previously dated back to 1895. For Corpus Christi this was their first measurable snowfall since 1973 and only their second White Christmas in recorded history. Victoria observed their first measurable snowfall since 1985 and their first ever known White Christmas in recorded history. For Brownsville 1.5 inches of snow fell, their first measurable snowfall since 1895 as well as their first ever White Christmas in recorded history. On Galveston Island 4 inches of snow fell, second behind 1895 when 15 inches fell. This was also Galveston's first ever White Christmas. In addition, extreme northeast Mexico received between 1 and 3 inches of snowfall, which was likely the first ever White Christmas experienced in this part of Mexico during recorded history."

I am happy for my fellow Texans to have witnessed something so rare that it may not happen again for thousands of years. I'll have to live vicariously through y'all at least until I see it snow on Christmas Day. However, it'll be my luck that some Christmas in the future will see a blizzard of epic proportions and I'll die on Christmas Eve. Bummer.