This year is warmest, but what was the coldest?

I was sitting in blind yesterday morning, wearing jeans, a t-shirt, a carhart vest, and an OSU hoodie - sweating! It was December 3rd of gosh sakes! While sitting there I began to think, well, it could be worse, i remember the time...

Last year when I went to the blind in mid-November wearing the same hoodie at nearly 80 degrees, and leaving 2.5 hours later and the temp had dropped to 40. I was cold.

Or back when I lived in Durango and we were hunting a ranch south of Mancos. I was in my pop-up camper in sub-zero mummy bag and the temp dropped to 9 with a howling wind. We had a small propane heater, but it didn't matter. The wind was whipping the canvas so hard no heat was gained. I chose NOT to hunt the next morning and stayed in the bag.

Once in Talpa, maybe around 1995 or 96 (?) we got caught in a pretty bad ice storm and really made hunting difficult. Almost couldn't walk to blind without busting your tail.

I'm sure other are like me, I really want some cooler weather, but boy, when it comes, I'll be missing this heat!

Later this week, amigo. Did you know any Kirklands in that Mancos country? I worked on their ranch in the summers of 1973 and '74 taking care of horses. And riding my horse and trout fishing all day every day in between my chores. Don Kirkland was the owner. 1989 is the coldest Texas winter I can recall in recent memory.

The winters as a whole of 1976/1977 & 1977/1978, 1988/1989, were the coldest Tx winters I recall, followed by the month of Dec 1983.

In the early 80's Abilene had a cold streak that lasted a week or more and we never got over zero degrees. I can also remember a few times that we had ice storms before Thanksgiving. One year we were getting ready for a Veterans Day parade on the 11th, it was the 10th, we had been inside working on a float, when someone came in to tell us we had 4 inches of snow on the ground.

1989, parents pipes in Corpus Christi froze and burst when temps dipped to near 10 degrees for 3 nights straight. Was in Laredo hunting that week in the sleet, highs were mid 20s, lows near single digits. Saw tons of game and quality at that.

Not the coldest by far but January this year in San Saba I hunted and it was 13 degrees that morning. 4 wheeler took a dump over a mile from camp. It was a long, cold walk back. Even more fun cleaning a deer after that.

I can distinctly remember the temps reaching below zero in Corsicana shortly before Christmas in 1989. I don’t expect to ever see that again in my lifetime.

This time last year was much colder

it's been purdy nice, I haven't turned the heater on at the house yet this year...

Was it around 2012?...

The temp got to 8 w -1 or -2 wind chills, that was in N Tx

I remember because at the time w lived in a pier and beam home with busted pipes running out my ears

Both airports in Houston set record lows for that date on Oct. 29 2017. Coldest years for any date were in 1950 and 1989.

It was either 2010 or 2011 special late season I believe, I hunted for about a week and temps never got above freezing/mostly in the teens. I was hunting out of a popup and finally decided to shoot a doe. I was so cold I took her to the processor and paid them to gut and process her. I was miserably cold.

I don't think I got cold once last season but didn't hunt in January like normal.

I think 2012/maybe 2013 when we had that small freeze. I hunted that morning and was running across the marsh in my pro-drive and the ice sounded like asphalt on the bottom of the boat. Every single blade of grass was about tripled in size due to the ice, and it was all laying flat due to the weight. I also worked on patrol that night and was shutting down bridges/overpasses.

Sorry, no, didn't know them. Pretty country though!

Someone mentioned 12/1983 - that was a rough one. I was going to college in Oklahoma, but hunting near Evant. I left the ranch at around 3 on a Sunday headed back for class the next morning. Temp was about 50, but falling. Started sleeting north of Hamilton, and by the time I got to Hico it was a sheet of ice. The 6 hour drive back ended up taking me 13 and took a few years off of my life. I remember being on 35 near the border, looking at dozens of cars off the roads, and hearing on the radio that everyone should be off the roads and home. I never agreed more, but had to trudge on and finally made it.

I remember some cold ones in the 80's. Ice storms and frozen tanks. Even running water in the fountain in town froze in the shape it was pouring out in. It was really neat.

either 83/84, or 84/85, can't remember which, went 16 days at Lake Brownwood without getting above freezing. Entire lake on west side of bridge (shallow end) froze over. Just keeping livestock watered was a daily chore. Remember finding dead birds around the deer feeders that had frozen to death. Bad time.

Last year, I think it was late season when the "Polar Plunge" struck. I hunted the evening, sat around the fire that night and watched my beverage freeze on the top of the Tervis lid. Woke up the next morning at 5, looked at the theremometer and it was 16* outside. I went back to the sleeping bag....

I spent 7 years living in Tahoe and saw 60'+ of snow each year with temps to -20*. Cold is something I don't mind, with the proper clothing. I didn't have any of my good "cold weather" gear from living in the mountains, not even a good set of gloves. The 2 mile ride to the stand is what I was more concerned with.

I ended up wearing my hunting gloves under my rubber gloves to clean that deer. To say it was a hack job is an understatement. I just wanted to be done with that day and go home.

winter 1984/1985 (if memory serves me, might have been '83/'84) was the coldest I ever recall. Got to around 0*F in Georgetown and set a record ... not a good time to be driving a diesel truck in those temps without access to winter fuel and better not have any moisture in any gasoline vehicle either!!! The heat pump in our house would not keep up and the undersized heat strips wouldn't either (thank you Jimmy Carter for energy regulations and builders following those guidelines for under-sizing heating & cooling systems for homes built in the late 1970s), couldn't get the inside temp of our house above about 45*F for over a week ... we bought a Earth Stove fireplace insert during that time to keep the house a comfy 75*F, but also had unlimited supply of firewood.

https://www.weather.gov/fwd/actclimo

It been a very warm fall but we did tie for the 2nd earliest freeze, october 28th. December 1989 was brutal cold.

As of today, this thread is no longer relevant, at least here in Dallas.

83/84 I think it was...

Hunted a lease near Laredo with my dad when I was a teen. Shot a nice buck the evening that the cold weather was to arrive down there. Hung it out and the carcass was frozen solid at the end of the weekend. Had to let it sit in the sun for a while to thaw out before I could skin it out once we were home. Still remember smoke from burn barrels in some orchards that used to be along I35 back then - trying to keep the trees from freezing (didn't work). Had to break ice on the water troughs for the cattle to drink every day for the following week. Not that unusual for you guys farther north but it was a long and deep freeze for our part of the world.

driedmeat, yes, my lease buddy and I took our remaining 4-5 does as that cold front hit, hung them in my carport and planned on skinning the next morning. They were frozen solid and I had to drag them into the garage with a space heater to thaw them out enough to skin.

Tell that to this guy

I went bird hunting in North Dakota in November and it was the coldest weather I had hunted in.
When we got out of the truck

My bird dog and me about to hit it

When we were headed in

Hope he had a bottle of the brown water and some tacos to hold him over, because I sure would.

He was eating a sandwich and chips a minute ago. I told him TX mule deer don’t move in the snow.

Obviously he didn’t listen.







Well I might not of told him that but an expert in the matter did or I might be the guy that told him that was BS, mulies love snow

Lol I just imagined being stuck in the cold raining slop that's around here then see that, that's gotta suck!

hunted last year in coke county ..7 degrees..cup of hot coffee froze in about 5 minutes

I have some memoral icy hunts in the late 90s.

Opening Day 91 was brutal...... A 9 and a 8 that day in Lampassas

2013 had a pretty good cold snap too. 18 degree highs on the Red River. Another big 10 went down

4 years ago when it iced over for 7 days. Once you got off the porch it was a total ice sheet. Didn't see a cloven hooved animal move all week. Freaked the deer out. Busted my arse a few times.

just as a challenge had a redbone coon dog..that peopls said i couldnt tree a coon in a blue northern that had come in in gainesville red river country..it was -3 degrees wind chill of minus 22..coons wouldnt be walking..took him out to a peach orchard he struck and trailed a coon on top of water that a pond had frozen over..put a flashligh on him as he was trailing accross the ice..watched loggerhead turtle trapped under the ice trying to break out for air..treed sow coon in a holler with 3 other coons..that was cold..best coon dog i ever had..a dadburn redbone..go figure and i was a treeing walker man..lol

it snowed 6 inches at my house two days ago.


In corpus christi Texas.