While checking today's weather forecast from National Weather Service Fort Worth office, I came across a nice write-up about the coldest December on record for the Dallas/Fort Worth in 1983. The region went through a cold snap that brought temperatures upwards of 12 degrees Fahrenheit colder than normal with the entire month's average temperature 4 degrees colder than any other December in the record books. Fortunately, I was not in the Metroplex at the time, but I do remember this event fairly well, even in South Texas.
I was in fifth grade at the time and it was the last Friday before Christmas break. There was talk of a big cold front coming that day so I looked out a north facing window and saw this line of anvil shaped clouds off in the distance. Needless to say, I went to school prepared with a jacket and recall that there were very few of us who brought jackets to school that day. Well, what do you expect with the mild temps that greeted us that morning.-- I would venture a guess that it was a very windy 60-something that morning. I might have felt overdressed when I got dropped off, but I was so happy that I had brought a jacket as the thermometer's bottom essentially dropped out even before lunchtime. We didn't get any frozen precipitation that time around, it doesn't happen all that often anyway, but I do remember how surprised and shocked my classmates were because of how cold it had gotten that day. It was a blustery cold rain. I was one of the lucky ones to have a jacket and I was happy that my family watched the weather report that morning!
