From Snow to extreme Heat in Monterrey

For the first time in six years, flurries fell in Monterrey's metro area. Curiously enough, the snow did not accumulate despite having temperatures in the mid 20s in places like my house. On February the 2nd, it snowed only on the Sierra Madre for a couple of hours. On the next day, the snow was much heavier, but at the same it was so light that it did not even wet the street or the cars. The high temperature reached the freezing mark under mostly sunny skies.

I was driving the car down the hill to take my sister to dance classes when I noticed a flat tire. I walked her home in less than ten minutes and asked my father for help in order to finish sooner. By the time we were done, it was 25 degrees (-4 Celsius) at seven P.M. Because there was no wind, It did not feel as cold as it normally would when it is 35 or 40 degrees and drizzling, something that normally happens several times each winter in Monterrey. That is about as cold as it usually gets each year. When it does, Europeans and Americans shiver, why? Because they've got excellent heating systems everywhere. Most houses like mine heat up but the walls and floors remain cold.

It got cloudy again on that afternoon and the last flurries fell for about five minutes before the sky cleared completely during the night. Low temperatures in Monterrey reached around 25 (-4 Celsius), but where I live the thermometer reached 19 degrees (-7 Celsius) on February the fourth. Further up and east in the Sierra snow did stick to the ground. Chipinque had record visitors.

This was the coldest spell since 1989. I can tell that for two reasons. Firstly, records in most of central and south Texas (including The Valley) recorded their coldest temperature ever on Dec 23, 1989 (or near record cold). For instance, places like Laredo, Tx recorded 13 degrees (-11 Celsius) while San Antonio recorded 0 (-18 Celsius) and Austin -2 (-19 Celsius), McAllen reached the upper teens. In addition to that, the meteorologist from channel 12 in Monterrey confirmed that this was the coldest spell since then, but he did not mention how cold did it actually get, and my parents don't remember.

A brief warm up followed shortly after, only to be followed by another strong cold front. It generally remained very cold through Valentine's day, but the second half of February has been very warm. Tomorrow's high may reach 100 (38 Celsius). This has been a warm winter, despite the brutally cold air during the first half of February. We've also had virtually no rainfall since September.

Curious things about the weather:

- It takes about 30 years to see snow in Barcelona, Spain, and last year it snowed in March!

- For the first time since 1976, flurries fell in parts of San Francisco.

It's incredible to find cities located much farther north than Monterrey and with cooler average weather year round to see snow much less often than Monterrey does. For instance, San Francisco has average lows in the mid 50s and highs in the lower 70s in its warmest months, about 20 degrees less than what Monterrey averages in the summer months. Places near Barcelona such as Madrid and Andorra receive snow every winter.