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Dallas-Fort Worth Climate
North Texas lies near the crossroads of four distinct climate zones, so we endure extreme humidity of the Gulf Coast, heat and drought typical of semi-arid deserts, heavy rains typical of Midwestern summers and bitter wind chills sweeping through the unbroken plains from Canada.
At least it’s not boring here!
North Texas and most of the South is in the Subtropical Humid climate zone. But we are just barely east of the Steppe or Semi-Arid climate boundary of the Desert Southwest that begins near Abilene and only slightly south of the Temperate-Continental climate boundary of the Midwest.
To the west, the climate is either dry and cool in the Rockies or dry and warm in the desert. To the north and east, the climate is more temperate and wetter during the summer.
We typically have mild winters, stormy springs, hot summers and stormy autumns. The convergence of these different air masses, hot, cold, moist and dry at various altitudes, results in some of the most violent weather on earth. No other location on the planet is a more conducive breeding ground for severe weather.
The predominant jet streams are Polar (PJ), Subtropical (STJ) and the Low-level jet (LLJ) from the Gulf. Our stormiest weather occurs in the spring, then again in autumn as the Polar and Subtropical jet streams displace each other in the moist atmosphere of the Low-level jet from the Gulf.
During various times of the year, several air masses of different origins gather in their favorite playground between the Rockies and the Gulf.
Our coldest cold fronts originate in the landlocked continental Arctic (cA) and Polar (cP) regions- most often the Mackenzie River Valley in the Northwest Territories of Canada east of the Alaskan border, where temperatures of 40-below zero are common. The intense high pressure formed by the dense, cold air can sweep from Canada through the plains states in Texas dropping our temperatures into teens and even single digits.
Our more common cold fronts generally come from maritime Polar (mP) air masses near the Gulf of Alaska.
A third factor is the hot, dry continental Tropical (cT) air mass from the interior of Mexico that can trigger brutal summertime heat and towering thunderstorms that drop more dust than rain.
The most common air stream trajectory is the moist, maritime Tropical (mT) air mass from the Gulf of Mexico and western Atlantic. The influence of the Gulf, barely 250 miles away is impossible to ignore. Its humidity keeps our nights uncomfortably warm in summer but also protects us from some of the most extreme cold outbreaks in winter.
When air masses collide in North Texas, we can be attacked by a swarm of supercell thunderstorms as big as an entire county or a squall line of smaller storms stretching hundreds of miles wide. I know of no place other place on earth that has a more consistent variety of weather extremes and severe weather, yet agreeable weather most of the time. There’s no place on earth I’d rather be.
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