myTexas Hill Country

Hill Country Blog

There are as many experiences as there are people living here. This is our story, about our special places, activities and taking life day by day. See more stories to the right in our Blog Listing.

Weathering the Hill Country

Visiting any given state in the nation, you get the opportunity to experience that region's climate during a specific time of year.  Most vacation travel in the United States is during the summer months when temperatures can be at their most favorable - and sometimes you get extreme weather. You may get the unexpected, but most times you get what is on the standard menu for that time of year.  In Texas, dealing with extreme weather any time of the year is not uncommon.   

My first month in Texas, I knew it was going to be hot, but not the kind of hot that had me fast stepping from my car to the controlled climate of air conditioned indoors.  I found myself moving from one shade tree to another looking for the next shadow to lurk in.  I wrote it off to not yet being acclimated the Texas heat.  The end of that myth came as my wife and I were catching relief from the heat in the local office of vehicle licensing. 

An elderly gentleman entered the four chair cubicle of the waiting room and took the seat beside me. 

He was a Texan from head to toe and had the dusty aura that told me he had lived his entire life in this small town. 

With a tired sigh of relief, he turned my direction and said, “It’s sure hot out there”.  And as if we didn’t believe him, with more emotion and a shake of his head he said, “I mean it’s HOT out there.”  

Before being a resident of Texas, we lived in western Washington State.  We had our occasional experiences with thunderstorms.  Most sightings of lightning were the single jagged hairlines of light making a path to the earth. 

Our first experience of lightning in Texas was definitely exciting and like nothing we had ever experienced.  Watching bolts of lighting travel across the sky sideways for miles and not just a single bolt, but multiple bolts of light, spraying from the original shaft.  The subsequent booms of thunder were not only in surround sound but the bass from the boom would shake the air. 

Texans are extremely cautious about lightening.  When the first boom of thunder is heard, they scatter. It's not something to mess around with. Lightening can travel distances of 5 miles or greater from its original origin.

On another occasion, I saw cumulus clouds roll through the area.  A particularly large one could be seen in the distance and appeared to be in inner turmoil.  There were sparks of light within the clouds and thunder cursed in the air, but no bolts of lightning ever exited the cloud.  I watched this display for several minutes before heeding the warning to head for cover.  Most of the time winds in the Hill Country do not allow clouds to linger, so storms perform urgently and violently as they pass by.     

The rains accompanying the thunderstorm are not just a drizzle... they are downpours.  In the hill country, especially on the back roads, with all the dips and valleys, you need to be particularly cautious.  Water depth markers indicate the water level if creeks begin to flood.  Do not mess around or even attempt to cross these roads during times of high water.

You don't want to be heading down the river
trying to navigate your Honda.

The winds in the hill country are often blowing to some degree.  In the summer they can be most welcomed.  In the winter, with the cooler temperatures, they can be bone-chilling.  This past winter a cold front with moisture came through, leaving vertical surfaces covered up to ½ inch in ice.  Needless to say traffic ceased, one way or another.  The smarter folks stayed home, the less smart skated right into drainage ditches.

During much of the year the prevailing winds come up from the southwest with warm humid air.  During the winter months the area gets the cold air blowing down from the north.  Snow is not unheard of, but rarely sticks.  

Before moving to the hill country, my wife became concerned about the possibility of tornados.  Our realtor assured us that tornados rarely make it as far south as the hill country.  So, it was a surprise this past spring when the local weather stations began forecasting high winds with the possibility of funnel formations in our area. 

With the weather detection systems now available, we were able to watch as a tornado did form and began its way towards us. My family had never been through a tornado watch, so it was pretty tense for several hours.  The winds generated by this tornado were about 75 miles per hour, mild compared to the killer ones up north. 

As the news was blurting out the course and eyewitness reports, the tornado moved to within about 20 miles of our home.   I needed to get a real feel for what was going on so I stepped outside.  One of the first things I noticed was the deadly quiet of the night. Normally charged with the chatter of bugs, there was nothing -- not even a lick of wind was blowing.  It was complete stillness. Looking into the sky, the clouds were lit by distant lightning in so many different directions it was as if my eyes were being tricked. 

And then the wind began, followed by a heavy deluge of rain and thundering lighting strikes.  I hurried back inside where my wife sat mesmerized by the weather channels tracking of the storm which was now just six miles south of us. Finally, at about 1:00AM, we were able to switch off the news and try to get some sleep -- the storm had continued its journey east.