If you could sum up 2023′s weather in one word, I think we could all agree it would be “HOT.” 🔥 Heat dominated the headlines, but that’s not all that happened.
Following our annual tradition, here are the year’s top 5 weather events (as voted on by the KSAT weather team).
No. 5: SAN ANTONIO SEES ITS HIGHEST HEAT INDEX EVER 🥵
On June 20, the temperature reached 105 degrees at the San Antonio International Airport. That’s hot, but something we’ve dealt with before. The issue that day was not only was it blazing hot, it was HUMID. That produced a heat index, or a feels-like temperature, of 116 degrees! That is the highest heat index San Antonio has seen since records on this stat have been kept (1940s).
No. 4: ICE STORM CRIPPLES HILL COUNTRY, AUSTIN ❄
San Antonio got a dose of cold air on Jan. 29, with temperatures dipping quickly below freezing in the Hill Country. This was followed by precipitation, sometimes heavy, resulting in a significant freezing rain and icing on Jan. 31. While San Antonio, by and large, escaped major ice accumulation (<.10 inches of ice), those in northern Bexar County and Comal, Blanco, Kendall, Gillespie and Kerr counties picked up anywhere from a quarter to a half of inch of ice. Even higher amounts were reported in Austin, where power outages were widespread. While that doesn’t sound like much, just a half inch of ice can take down power lines and tree branches. A major clean-up effort was needed in the days after to clean up broken tree limbs.
No. 3: TORNADO TOUCHES DOWN NEAR DOWNTOWN SAN ANTONIO 🌪
With that headline, you might be asking — how is that not number 1?! Well, it was a brief, weak tornado that did minimal damage. It occurred on a day with rather benign storms, however, the winds of the atmosphere aligned just right to give us what we often refer to as a quick “spin-up.” These kinds of tornadoes are virtually impossible to warn for, as they spin up and dissipate before we can even detect them on radar. Nonetheless, the tornado happened during the morning commute and many people caught the event on their cellphones. It created quite a buzz around San Antonio. It was rated by the National Weather Service as an EF-0, with minor damage reported around Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston and Terrell Hills. Three other weak tornadoes were noted by the National Weather Service in Guadalupe County, near Cibolo, in Comal County along FM 306, with another in Caldwell County.
No. 2: ANNULAR ECLIPSE HAS ALL OF SAN ANTONIO LOOKING UP 🔭🌎🌑☀
A celestial event winds up in the second spot. San Antonio was captivated by an annular solar eclipse on Oct. 14. The path of the eclipse passed over the city, a rare event that brought visitors from across the country. It created the infamous “ring of fire” with the moon moving in front of the sun. Events were held across San Antonio, and cheers could be heard as totality occurred. What made this event even more exciting was knowing that an even more spectacular total solar eclipse will also pass across the city in 2024. To have two eclipses like this crisscross over our city is truly a once-in-a-lifetime situation! Expect the total solar eclipse to make our 2024 countdown. Spoiler alert... I have no doubt it’ll be number 1 next year!
No. 1: THE HEAT THAT WOULDN’T QUIT 🔥
And the winner is ... the summer swelter. No one, and I mean no one, will be surprised by this. Just when we thought it couldn’t get any worse than the summer of 2022, it did. San Antonio saw the hottest summer on record in 2023. August was the hottest month San Antonio has ever seen (since records have been kept). We witnessed a record number of triple-digit days, the most consecutive triple-digits days, and the most 105-degree days! And that’s just a sampling of the records that fell. Here’s for hoping that summer 2024 is at least a little cooler!
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