Texas Upper Gulf Coastal Zone

Weather Data for Southeast Texas
By Bob Randall,Ph.D.
Fall 2007

 

 

About The Texas Upper Gulf Coastal Zone

 

The Coastal Zone defines an area along the Upper Texas Gulf Coast up to about 12 miles inland including barrier islands. It has the warmest winters in the region.

 

About Chill

 

The first table below describes chill. Chill is a measurement useful in determining which temperate climate fruit trees (and other temperate plants) will do well in a local winter. Temperate climate plants have ways to go dormant in winter and wake in spring, and have mechanisms for counting chill units during winter so they will "awaken" after the worst cold and soon enough to produce leaves, flowers and fruit in spring. This far south, chill is calculated from average January temperatures.

 

 
1998-07
1997-07
1997-06
1997-06
1998-06
Chill
Galveston
Jamaica Beach
Freeport
Matagorda
Bay City
< 200 units
200-399
30%
18%
40%
10%
44%
400-599
40%
45%
30%
50%
22%
600-799
20%
27%
20%
30%
33%
800-999
10%
9%
10%
10%
1000-1199

 

About Yearly Low Temperatures

 

The next two tables describe experiences with yearly low temperatures. The low temperature for the year defines in an important way how well tropical and semi-tropical plants will survive. Many varieties of healthy citrus trees will survive 22˚ with no damage, while papayas have trouble below 30˚ and mangoes at 26˚. There are other issues related to this--how dormant the plant is, how healthy it is, how many hours the temperature stays at this number, and how thick the trees limbs are. The first table below describes the month of the year's lowest temperature and the second table describes what the temperature was.

 

Month of
1998-07
1997-07
Minimum Temp
Galveston
Jamaica Beach
November
0%
0%
December
20%
32%
January
50%
45%
February
30%
23%
March
0%
0%
 
Minimum Yearly
1998-07
1997-07
Temperature
Galveston
Jamaica Beach
Less than 27
0%
0%
27-29
0%
9%
30-32
50%
45%
33-35
10%
18%
36-39
40%
27%
Above 40
0%
0%

 

About Frosts in areas near the coast

 

Knowing when the first and last freezes of the winter will occur at a location helps gardeners in many ways. If some of ones plants may be damaged, one can be ready to protect them. The number of frosts over the entire winter, by contrast, gives a measure of how frequently one may need to protect something. If you typically have 30 freezes, it is probably foolish to grow either papayas or tomatoes outside except in a hoop greenhouse. But if there are typically only one or two frosts or none as is the case everywhere in this zone, it can be worthwhile to protect a single plant planted in a northwind rotected place outside. Winter tomatoes, papayas, bananas, and much else typically thrive here.

 

 
1998-07
1997-07
First Frost
Galveston
Jamaica Beach
Before Dec 16
0%
0%
Dec 16-31
10%
18%
Jan 1-15
30%
18%
Jan 16-31
10%
9%
after Feb 1
0%
0%
None
50%
55%
     
 
1998-07
1997-07
Last Frost
Galveston
Jamaica Beach
None
50%
55%
Before Dec 16
0%
0%
Dec 16-31
10%
9%
Jan 1-15
20%
18%
Jan 16-31
10%
9%
Feb 1-14
0%
0%
Feb 16-29
0%
0%
Mar 1-15
10%
9%
Mar 16-31
0%
0%
     
 
1998-07
1997-07
 
Galveston
Jamaica Beach
Freeze #s
0%
9%
none
50%
55%
1 or 2
40%
27%
3 to 7
10%
18%
More than 7
0%
0%