Think cold thoughts: Can you remember the last time the Brazos Valley recorded a record low?

BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) – If Summer 2023 has taught us anything, it is that even the records that were deemed once-in-a-lifetime are breakable. The last three months have taken just about every heat record in the books for the Brazos Valley, short of the hottest year of record (yet). 141 years of record-keeping that have seen many lines drawn through and replaced with the numbers 2-0-2-3.

By now, you know all of this. You have lived through and experienced this. One question that comes up every now and again on social media or in the PinPoint Weather Team’s inbox: when was the last time Bryan-College Station broke a record low temperature? Had significant enough cold to rewrite the record books?

The answer: FEBRUARY 2021. You remember the deep freeze that plunged thermometers and entombed Texas in a layer of ice and snow starting around Valentine’s Day and now thawing out until a week later? Over 930 days ago, the last record low that Bryan-College Station occurred on February 20, 2021 when the low of 28° tied the coldest temperature on record for the day with 1929.

Since then, over two and a half years, the Brazos Valley has not experienced another record low or record low maximum (coldest low temperature of record). More staggering? Since the last record low at Easterwood Airport, 109 heat records have been tied or broken. 69 record high minimums (warmest low temperature of record) and 40 record high temperatures.

All this said, while 2022 and 2023 have trained the mind to think that records are a common occurrence, they should be the exception rather than the rule. A long stretch without record cold is not uncommon, but even two and a half years is an abnormal stretch without such a feat.

Not to say there have not been abnormally cold snaps during this time, either. Most notably during Christmas 2022. Between December 22nd and Christmas morning, low temperatures fell anywhere between 20° and 30° below the expected average. Morning thermometers between 14° and 18° were significantly cold, but still fell about 10° above the record lows set in a significant cold snap of 1989.

In the month of September, cold weather and cold records are likely not on the minds of many Texans. Why would it be? The first big cold front of the season typically does not blow a chill into the Brazos Valley until October. This is a reminder of what a warming climate looks like. Record cold is still possible, but it’s much, much less frequent than heat. Note there are more warm record lows than record highs. Overnights — like we’ve experienced this summer — are where we are seeing the biggest fingerprints of the current climate challenge.

Here’s to finding weather more suitable for pumpkin spice and everything nice…and maybe even challenging history for weather more worthy of bundling up rather than clicking the air conditioner down.