SAN ANTONIO – The month of February 1996 was the definition of the old adage “if you don’t like the weather in Texas, just wait a while”.
It featured plenty of ups and downs, but a triple digit reading on February 21 ranks as the most notable. It’s also a record that may not be broken for a long, long time.
Before we got the scorcher that was February 21, we spent the first part of the month in the deep freeze. In fact, light icing was reported on the 1st and 2nd. That’s not terribly unusual. What followed was wacky.
The temperature bounced around... a lot. Then, by the 21st, San Antonio’s high temperature soared to 100 degrees! Here’s a look at the archived weather map, courtesy of NOAA, of that date. You can see we had a west wind and dry air. That combination always helps to warm us up.
The next hottest temperature for February in San Antonio occurred just two days later on February 23rd, with a reading of 97 degrees. While archives can’t tell us for sure, we feel fairly certain that San Antonio was the hottest place in the country on February 21.
And if that wasn’t wild enough, by the end of the month, temperatures plunged. It was cold enough on the 29th that some places reported seeing ice again! Februarys can often be busy months for San Antonio, but 1996 took it to a new level.
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