<p>My son is looking at Texas schools (Trinity, Southwestern, TCU). I am a lifelong Californian so the weather out there is an unknown. Tornados appear to brush the north part of the state and I can get historical information on how often they strike. </p>
<p>Whats the deal with golfball - baseball - softball sized hail? Seems like it would be like bricks falling from the sky. Does this happen often? Does it destroy your cars? Am I correct that the further south you go the less it becomes a problem?</p>
<p>Thanks for educating a Californian on Texas weather.</p>
<p>If you go to south Texas you have the hurricane issue. The large hail does not happen often and is usually in a pretty small area, but it does happen and it DOES damage cars and roofs. I think you hear of it more in the DFW area than in San Antonio/Austin.
It’s hot in Texas…</p>
<p>Hail is often associated with tornado weather, but not always. Most of the hail I’ve seen has been roughly marble-sized with maybe some approaching grape-sized. Those can put little dings in your car if it’s not in covered parking. If you have comprehensive coverage on your car, it will usually cover hail damage. It doesn’t happen that often, the really huge stuff you’re talking about is rare. If you go too far south (well, towards the gulf), you start to run into hurricane territory.</p>
<p>I’ve lived in Texas all my life, and hail happens in the spring. However, this has been the most active hail season I remember!! I’ve never had to have a car repaired for hail damage, but we do now have a car that has some damage.</p>
<p>Hey, rhumbob. My son will be a freshman at Southwestern in the fall. PM me if you have questions. :)</p>
<p>Texas weather for the most part, in the summer, is hot, or it’s hot AND humid. Today, for instance, in Austin, it is hazy and the high is supposed to be near 100. And it’s still May. </p>
<p>As the other folks have said, hail nearly always occurs during spring and summer thunderstorms, but it can hail on one block and only rain on the next block. My car (when it was three months old, of course!) got pelted with hail about the size of a quarter and ended up with three or four dings. The really big hail – baseball-sized and up – occurs with very fast-building thunderstorms that also sometimes produce tornados. You are correct in that the area from north of Dallas toward the Oklahoma border is the most likely to experience a tornado.</p>
<p>The most important thing car-wise is to have a car with air conditioning. In Fort Worth, Georgetown or San Antonio, you’re gonna need the a/c. </p>
<p>Don’t know if you recall the F-5 tornado that hit Jarrell, Texas, back in 1997. Jarrell is only a few miles north of Georgetown. That storm, even in Austin, which is 35 or so miles from Jarrell, was frightening. But one thing you’ll find interesting: when DS and I were doing our campus tour at Southwestern last November, I noticed little signs at the doorways of restrooms or other rooms, usually in the center of the buildings – the little signs had a tornado symbol on them, signifying that room was a tornado shelter. I asked our tour guide about it; turns out, he was from Jarrell and was in second grade when that tornado came through. At some point after that was when Southwestern put these signs up to indicate tornado shelters inside the larger classroom and other buildings.</p>
<p>Resident of North Texas here: Yes we get hail and tornadoes. But I think what gets most non-native folks is the heat! If your child goes to TX for college - it will likely be in the 90s and 100s until October (or later) and will reach 90s again by April or May (or earlier). The farther south you go - the more humidity. But, on the bright side, you won’t need many “winter” clothes.</p>
<p>Contrary to popular opinion, Texas does have four seasons:</p>
<p>Almost summer, summer, still summer, and Christmas. :)</p>
<p>I’ve lived here for over forty years and have neither experienced a tornado nor had a car damaged by hail. As mentioned, those things do happen, but the heat is really the most challenging thing about Texas weather.</p>
<p>I didn’t believe there was such a thing as baseball sized hail, until we got baseball sized hail at our house. It sounded like…someone was throwing baseballs at our house! Broken windows and patio furniture. Everyone in the neighborhood got new roofs. The next weekend there was actually SOFTBALL sized hail a few miles away. People were injured. Cars had clean holes through their windows.</p>
<p>BUT…that was in 1995 and I haven’t seen hail that large since. Last night was golfball…that’s more common and yes it can damage cars.</p>
<p>We had an amazing hailstorm a couple of summers ago, where it looked like it had snowed there was so much of it. Totally destroyed my tomatoes. And we are nowhere near Texas. :)</p>
<p>Thanks everyone. Sounds like this goes in the category “could happen but not likely in the short run”.</p>
<p>We know about the heat and that is part of the attraction. Son likes warm weather. In fact, there are many great schools that fit his requirements except for the “no long, cold winter” rule.</p>
<p>Rhumbob - we visited Trinity in December. It was a gorgeous sunny day with temperatures in the 70’s. The campus had great landscaping and everything was lush and green even in December. Add to that lunch in an outdoor Mexican cafe… Can you tell it was my favorite visit?</p>
<p>Okay, this is proving my earlier point . . . the high hit 101 in Austin today; DH got home about 5:00 p.m. from work and our a/c wasn’t working, not even the fan; he called the repair people and just now, at about 8:30, the guy got it working again. It has been 85 degrees inside our house, which is too dang hot! </p>
<p>pamayawaa – Trinity is a beautiful school, up on that hill. San Antonio is a a great city; DS applied there but got waitlisted; it was a reach school for him, but he’s happy where he ended up.</p>