HOUSTON – When the temperature drops to 24° or below for two hours or more, that is considered a “hard” freeze or as some say, “pipe bursting” freeze.
That is most dangerous to pipes freezing (and don’t forget pool pipes!).
As for plants, many of our Houston plants can stand freezing temperatures and some even to 27°, but any potted plants are best brought indoors.
As for pets, if you don’t want to be out there in the cold, neither do they, regardless of temperature!
Q. How often do we get a hard freeze?
A. They are, obviously, more common from Conroe to the north and west. Houston (Bush/IAH) itself is on a rollercoaster for such freezes. About half of our winters since 1969 have experienced a hard freeze.
In the past decade, we dropped to 21° in January 2014 and again in 2017, and 19° in January 2018. Then the big freeze of February 2021, we dropped to 7° and in December 2022, we dropped to 15°. We had no freeze AT ALL in 2023, which is the ONLY year on record that we did not at least drop to the freezing mark!
Q. Will we have a hard freeze in the next few days?
A. Right now, the most serious threat, as of this writing, though it could change, is a hard freeze on Monday.
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