Meanwhile, in Galveston (Photo credit: Brett Coomer/Staff photographer)
Houston woke up to a winter wonderland Tuesday as a fresh blanket of snow fell across the region. The winter storm that also brought sleet should taper off through Tuesday afternoon.
How does this snow — which sent some outdoors to enjoy the rare sight while many others chose to stay indoors and get cozy — compare to previous snow days in Houston?
The heaviest precipitation is over in most of Greater Houston. While exact totals are hard to come by until snow completely stops, most reports through 10 a.m. Tuesday indicated 1 to 4 inches of snow and sleet have fallen in Greater Houston and Harris County.
Bush Intercontinental Airport, Houston’s official climate observation site, recorded 2 inches of snow shortly after 9 a.m. On the city’s southeast side, a 3-inch snow total was observed near Hobby Airport around the same time Tuesday morning.
Other spots across Southeast Texas have reported similar snowfall totals, with places like Liberty and Beaumont recording as much as 3 to 5 inches of snow.
[…]
Tuesday’s snowfall of at least 2 inches makes it the highest single-day totals since 1973 at Bush Intercontinental. The most recent 1-inch snowfall in Houston occurred during the February 2021 freeze, but the city has had 10 other instances where at least a half an inch to 2 inches of snow have occurred.
The snowiest day in Houston’s history occurred on Valentine’s Day in 1895 when a whopping 20 inches was recorded. The second- and third-snowiest days occurred in 1940 and 1960 when the city recorded 3 inches of snow. While official snow totals may fall shy of 3 inches at Bush Intercontinental, a total of more than 2.3 inches would put Tuesday’s snow among the top five snowiest days on record.
Indeed, there was a blizzard warning issued for parts of Louisiana yesterday, which is the kind of sentence I didn’t expect to type anytime soon. The Space City Weather guys have more details for you, with the warning that while a lot of snow melted during the day – which I have to say turned out to be pretty tolerable, once the sun came out and the winds died down – that likely means icy roads today, at least for the morning. Stay home until things warm up a bit and the roads become less hazardous, which ought to be this afternoon.
The good news is that the power mostly stayed on, which is something a lot of people had been very worried about. The bad news is that at least two people are dead as a result of the storm and freeze so far, one of whom was involved in a car wreck. Hopefully that won’t go up any further. The airports remain closed for now, but that may change by the time you read this. My parents are supposed to fly home today, we’ll see if they have to extend their stay a bit. Maybe we can snow ice cream to help pass the time.
You probably saw lots of snow-related photos on social media, but if you need more, Houston Landing and The Barbed Wire have you covered. And I’ll just leave this here:
Questionable decisions happening in snowy West U #houwx #hounews
— Evan (@evan7257) 9:19 AM – 21 January 2025
One more day off for the school kids to enjoy what they can of the snow. Make the best of it, y’all.