AUSTIN (KXAN) — The strongest cold front of the season moved through Central Texas over the weekend, finally ushering in fall-like morning low temperatures for most of Texas. Now that it feels briefly like fall, it’s time to look at when we can expect that first freeze.
A freeze is defined as having a low temperature of 32º or colder. Technically, a hard freeze is when temperatures drop to 28º or below. You can get frost with air temperatures several degrees above freezing.
For the purposes of this, we’ll just look at the average first day with low temperatures of 32º or colder coming after the conclusion of the summer months. The average is over a 30-year period from 1991-2020.
Central Texas
In Central Texas, there’s quite a lot of variety with our first freeze, largely dependent on terrain as well as urban heat impacts. While Austin averages the first freeze around the start of December, it can happen several days earlier for the Austin suburbs away from Interstate 35.
The average first freeze in the Texas Hill Country is closer to the middle of, or even early November. Eastern counties in Central Texas average a first freeze closer to the end of November, and parts of Mason and Gillespie County average their first freeze near the end of October!