Houstonians See Sleet, Threat Of Snow With Freeze Warning

HOUSTON, TX — Those who live north of the Texas-Oklahoma state line may scoff when they hear Texans talk about the snowfall in December, and the current cold snap that has dropped temperatures to below freezing as far south as Galveston, but it’s certainly not a normal winter occurrence in this part of Texas.

Sleet as far south as Galveston’s Jamaica Beach fell, with one resident seen pulling frozen oranges off the tree in his front yard.

“It’s trying to snow down here,” said Colin Thompson, a Galveston resident.

The Houston area got a touch of weather weirdness on Dec. 8, when the area exoerienced the first measureable snowfall in a decade, and now many Houstonians are seeing ice and sleet.

On Tuesday, motorists in Houston’s Midtown, into Sugar Land and farther south to Texas City reported seeing ice pellets and sleet on the roadways, the Houston Chronicle reported.

At noon on Tuesday, it was 29 degrees at Houston Intercontinental Airport with a windchill of 19, much colder than Houstonians typically see.

On Tuesday, the National Weather Service issued a hard freeze warning effective until 9 a.m. Wednesday for residents living in the counties of: Austin, Brazos, Burleson, Chambers, Colorado, Fort Bend, Grimes, Harris, Houston, Liberty, Madison, Montgomery, Polk, San Jacinto, Trinity, Walker, Waller, and Washington.

The arctic blast moved into the Houston area and southeast Texas on New Year’s Eve night, dropping temperatures into the upper 20s on Monday with highs in the mid to upper 30s.

On Tuesday, temps dropped into the 20s overnight with highs in the low 30s, with much the same expected into Wednesday.

Temperatures will gradually warm through the week, with more seasonable highs in the 60s expected by Sunday.

Image: (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

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