SAN ANTONIO – A day of blustery, chilly winds has been giving San Antonians a taste of the frigid weather that is to come.
Below-freezing temperatures are in the forecast for early next week.
The cold winds that blew in Friday morning, though, helped Margie Gaines prepare herself, although she isn’t happy about it.
“It’s going to be really cold,” she said. “I stay in San Antonio for a reason. I don’t care about the cold, not this cold.”
The chilly morning came less than 24 hours after a day where temperatures were well into the 70s and some people wore short sleeves.
Gaines said in case she chooses to go outdoors next week, she has an especially heavy coat she can wear.
Right now, though, her plans are to stay home this holiday weekend.
Originally, she had been wanted to attend the city’s annual Martin Luther King Day March and festivities, which organizers say is still going on as planned.
“But with the weather the way it’s going to be, I don’t think I’m going to be able to do it,” Gaines said.
By mid-Friday morning, the setup for the festivities at Pittman-Sullivan Park, the finish line for the march, had taken a beating from the winds.
Booths and banners were whipped around by strong gusts.
Trees all over town were bending and, in some cases, breaking from the winds.
At one point, a CPS Energy map was showing scattered outages across the area, many due to downed trees.
However, at Martin Luther King Park, Jennifer Smith was standing up to all of it -- in shorts.
“It’s shorts weather,” Smith said. “If the sun’s out, I’m in shorts. We’re out here working out, so it’s perfect shorts weather.”
Smith was part of SLAM, a mom’s workout group that regularly exercises outdoors.
She said even with the frigid temperatures that are predicted for next week, her fitness plans most likely will not change.
“As long as the roads don’t ice over, I think we’re good,” Smith said.
Just in case that happens, the Texas Department of Transportation and Bexar County’s Public Works Department are prepared.
A TxDOT spokeswoman said crews would be filling their de-icing trucks with a brine solution Friday afternoon.
Bexar County’s trucks, meanwhile, are ready to roll, according to a statement from the public works department.
Both entities expected to make a final decision at a later time about when, or if, they would deploy those trucks.
The City of San Antonio also released information Thursday about more than a dozen warming and resiliency centers that it will open Monday, allowing people to get out of the cold.