Let's talk about the weather in S.A. We are blessed with a temperate climate here in San Antonio. Most of the time, our weather forecasters have difficulty finding "storms" to talk about. We do have floods, tornados, hail, sleet, and heat waves, but lately significant weather events come around as often as the proverbial blue moon. I can't remember when we last had a soaking rain, and we really need one!

The city of San Antonio is located in the south–central portion of Texas on the Balcones escarpment. Northwest of the city, the terrain slopes upward to the Edwards Plateau and to the southeast it slopes downward to the Gulf Coastal Plains. Soils are blackland clay and silty loam on the Plains and thin limestone soils on the Edwards Plateau. The location of San Antonio on the edge of the Gulf Coastal Plains is influenced by a modified subtropical climate, predominantly continental during the winter months and marine during the summer months. Temperatures range from 50 degrees in January to the middle 80s in July and August. While the summer is hot, with daily temperatures above 90 degrees over 80 percent of the time, extremely high temperatures are rare. Mild weather prevails during much of the winter months, with below–freezing temperatures occurring on an average of about 20 days each year.

Above is a pic from the flood of 2002 taken on Route 281 on July 3rd. That summer, it seemed like it rained for forty days and forty nights.

San Antonio is situated between a semi–arid area to the west and the coastal area of heavy precipitation to the east. The normal annual rainfall of nearly 28 inches is sufficient for the production of most crops. Precipitation is fairly well distributed throughout the year with the heaviest amounts occurring during May and September. The precipitation from April through September usually occurs from thunderstorms. Large amounts of precipitation may fall during short periods of time. Most of the winter precipitation occurs as light rain or drizzle. Thunderstorms and heavy rains have occurred in all months of the year. Hail of damaging intensity seldom occurs but light hail is frequent with the springtime thunderstorms. Measurable snow occurs only once in three or four years. Snowfall of 2 to 4 inches occurs about every ten years. Northerly winds prevail during most of the winter, and strong northerly winds occasionally occur during storms called northers. Southeasterly winds from the Gulf of Mexico also occur frequently during winter and are predominant in summer.

Since San Antonio is located only 140 miles from the Gulf of Mexico, tropical storms occasionally affect the city with strong winds and heavy rains. One of the fastest winds recorded, 74 mph, occurred as a tropical storm moved inland east of the city in August 1942. Relative humidity is above 80 percent during the early morning hours most of the year, dropping to near 50 percent in the late afternoon. San Antonio has about 50 percent of the possible amount of sunshine during the winter months and more than 70 percent during the summer months. Skies are clear to partly cloudy more than 60 percent of the time and cloudy less than 40 percent. Air carried over San Antonio by southeasterly winds is lifted orographically, causing low stratus clouds to develop frequently during the later part of the night. These clouds usually dissipate around noon, and clear skies prevail a high percentage of the time during the afternoon. The first occurrence of 32 degrees Fahrenheit is in late November and the average last occurrence is in early March. The highest temperature ever to be recorded was 111 °F (43.8 °C) on September 5, 2000. The lowest recorded temperature ever was 0 °F (-17.7 °C) on January 31, 1949. The most rain recorded on any calendar day occurred Saturday, Oct. 17th, 1998...when 11.26 inches of rain fell at the San Antonio International Airport.