Austin

What does Austin weather do all year?

Austin has a long, hot, sticky summer, a short cool winter, and wild weather in between. Your house changes what it does to keep up, month by month.

Goldstrike says“Hot summers, surprise freezes: here’s Austin’s year.”

The big picture

Austin is in Central Texas. It is far to the south, so the sun sits high in the sky for much of the year. Wind from the south brings in warm, wet air from the Gulf of Mexico (a big warm sea about 150 miles away). That is why our summers feel so hot and sticky.

A few times each winter, cold air rushes down from the north. That is a cold front (the edge where cold air pushes in and shoves warm air out of the way). Most winters are mild, but some nights freeze, and once in a while it even snows.

☀️

Hot season

About May to September. Long sunny days and warm nights.

🍂

Front season

About October and November. Cold fronts start to win.

🧣

Cool season

About December to February. Mostly mild, with a few cold snaps.

⛈️

Storm season

About March to June. Thunder, heavy rain and sometimes hail.

Austin’s weather year, month by month

Every year is a little different. This is what usually happens.

Month	What the weather does	What your house does
January	Often the coolest month. Cold fronts blow through. Cedar trees (really a kind of juniper) turn orange-brown and puff tiny clouds of pollen in the wind.	The heat runs on cold mornings and nights. On sunny afternoons it may not run at all.
February	Cool days and warm days take turns. A freeze can still happen.	Heating on some days, nothing on others. Some days the house just coasts.
March	Spring arrives. Wildflowers start. Storm season begins.	The “in-between” month. Some homes use a little heat in the morning and a little cooling in the afternoon.
April	Warm and green. Thunderstorms can roll in fast.	The air conditioner starts waking up for the year.
May	Hot days start. Some years bring lots of rain and storms.	Cooling every day now. The AC also pulls water out of the air, and that water drips away through a pipe called the drain line.
June	Hot and very humid (sticky, wet air).	The AC runs long. It works on two jobs: cooling the air and drying it.
July	One of the hottest months. Lots of sunshine, not much rain.	The AC works hardest in the late afternoon, when the sun has been heating the roof and walls all day.
August	Usually the hottest month. Many days near or over 100 degrees.	Still working hard. Closed curtains on sunny windows help the house a lot.
September	Still hot, with a tease of cooler air near the end.	Still cooling. The first front may give the AC a day off.
October	The first real cold fronts usually arrive. Cooler, drier air. Some heavy rains.	Open-window days! Fewer AC hours. Some homes run heat for the first time.
November	Cool and pleasant. The first freeze can happen late in the month, but many years it waits until December.	The heat starts running more on cold nights.
December	Cool, with sunny days and cold snaps. Cedar season starts.	Heating on chilly nights. Warm air rises, so upstairs often feels warmer.

Weather words to know

Humid

Humid means the air holds a lot of water vapor. Water vapor is water so spread out that it floats in the air like an invisible gas. Austin’s summer air is often very humid. See why on Austin Whys.

Heat index (why does 95 feel like 105?)

Your body cools off when sweat dries on your skin. Drying takes heat away with it. In humid air, sweat dries slowly, so you feel hotter than the thermometer says. The heat index is a number that tells how hot it feels when you add the wet air in.

Heat dome

Sometimes a giant area of high pressure (heavy air pressing down) parks over Texas. The air under it sinks. Sinking air gets squeezed, and squeezed air warms up. The sinking air also stops clouds and rain from forming. So the sun bakes the ground day after day. People call this a heat dome, even though there is no real dome.

Blue norther

A blue norther is a strong, fast cold front from the north. The wind switches, the sky can turn dark blue-gray, and the temperature can drop a lot in a short time. In the morning you need shorts. By dinner you want a jacket.

Freeze

A freeze is when the air outside gets to 32 degrees or colder. That is cold enough to turn water into ice. In Austin this happens on a few nights most winters, not every day.

Flash flood

A flash flood is when water rises very fast after heavy rain. Central Texas has steep hills and thin soil over rock, so rain runs off quickly. Grown-ups never drive into water on a road. The weather service saying is “Turn Around, Don’t Drown.”

Storm counting

When you see lightning, start counting slowly: “one-one-thousand, two-one-thousand…” Stop when you hear thunder. Light is super fast. Sound is slower, so it arrives later.

See the flash. Start counting.
Hear the thunder. Stop counting.
Divide your number by 5. That is about how many miles away the lightning was.
Hear thunder at all? Stay inside. “When thunder roars, go indoors.”

Light zooms almost instantly. Sound travels about one mile in 5 seconds. So every 5 seconds of counting is about one mile.

House watch: things to notice

Your job is to look, listen and notice.

Hot months: Is the big air grille clear? That’s the large grille, usually on a wall or ceiling in a hallway, where the AC breathes in. Keep furniture, toys and laundry away from it.
Hot months: Which windows get afternoon sun? Ask a grown-up if you can close those curtains in the afternoon.
First cold front: Feel near a door with the back of your hand. Can you feel cold air sneaking in? That is a draft.
Freezing nights: Help remind your family to bring pets inside.
Cold days: Sometimes a puff of white cloud floats up from the outdoor unit. Watch it from a window.

Leave these to the grown-ups: the outside unit, the electric box and wires, and the attic.

Fun fact: Snow in Austin is rare. Some winters bring none at all. When it does snow, it is often gone by the afternoon.