If you live in Austin, you pretty much give up dreaming of a white Christmas. But this year especially, the weather will put the sweat in sweaters and have you swapping scarves for sunglasses.
Not only will Central Texas be treated to plenty of sunshine on Christmas Day, but Austin’s temperatures on Wednesday and throughout the week are expected to reach the low 70s, about 10 degrees warmer than normal, according to the National Weather Service.
As warm as that seems, it won’t be the hottest Christmas ever in Austin. That honor belongs to the Christmas of 1955, when temperatures hit 90 degrees in the city and 91 at the site of Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, which was still an Air Force base.
But high temperatures on Christmas in Austin have been warmer than normal — 61 degrees — for five of the past 10 years. Last Christmas, temperatures peaked at 74 degrees. Austin got as warm as 80 degrees in 2016, 70 degrees in 2015, 65 in 2014 and 67 in 2012.
With no chance of rainfall Wednesday and with springlike temperatures, you’ll have to keep dreaming if you want to see snow in Austin. Even the weather service records, which go back to the late 1890s, show that the city has never had snow on Dec. 25, save for a trace amount in 1939.
It might not have snowed, but it’s definitely been freezing on Dec. 25. Temperatures dropped to or below 32 degrees about 20% of the time, weather records show.
The coldest Christmas recorded in Austin was in 1983, when temperatures sank to a low of 10 degrees and only got as high as 25.
Wednesday night won’t be anywhere near as frigid as that, at least not with the return of warmer southeast winds from the Gulf of Mexico, forecasters say. The moisture-rich air, though, means more clouds and patchy fog, which should help keep overnight temperatures above 49 degrees.
If you’re traveling in the days after Christmas, be aware that Central Texas should be rain-free until Friday, when showers roll into the region ahead of a cold front likely to arrive Saturday, forecasters say.
Cory Van Pelt, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service, said rainfall in Travis County on Friday and Saturday should be minimal.
“We’re not expecting a whole lot,” Van Pelt said. “It’ll be less than a quarter of an inch.”
However, Van Pelt said travelers planning to head home from other parts of the state Saturday and Sunday should keep an eye on more severe rainfall, particularly in the Houston and Dallas areas.
The weather service expects an inch to an inch and a half of rainfall in the northeastern part of Texas on those days, Van Pelt said.
Those relying on air travel this Christmas will have to pay close attention to several disturbances throughout the country that might affect flights over the holiday weekend, according to meteorologists.
Southern California will have heavy rainfall Wednesday night and into Thursday, and snow and ice storms are expected at the same time in the northern part of the country, in states such as Minnesota and North and South Dakota, according to Van Pelt.
Meteorologists also expect a precipitation-producing low pressure system to push through the middle of the country Saturday. By Sunday, that system will move northeast, where it will affect areas near the Great Lakes, Van Pelt said.
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