Hill Country sees little wintry precipitation despite a lot of anticipation
BURNET COUNTY, Texas - Small sleet pellets, known as graupel, fell across parts of the Hill Country Thursday.
The showers were spotty and the few pellets that landed quickly melted. In Llano, where the river was clearly ice-cold, a winter dusting covered parts of the county courthouse rooftop. Among the few to see it happen was Jeff Davis, who was at the store across the street.
"It was pretty, it didn’t last long, but I’m hoping for some more, they said snow at 3:00. We’ll see. Yeah, yeah. It’s killing my garden, man," said Davis.
Light snow did end up falling Thursday afternoon, just north of Marble Falls, and rain froze up on windshields near Bastrop. The weather didn’t cause an immediate run on local grocery stores– that’s not saying people were ignoring the winter event.
Rachael Hausman told FOX 7 she wants the weather to make up its mind. The cold forecast had her making a few extra stops Thursday.
"I went to the store, I gassed up and just watching the weather trying to be prepared," said Hausman.
Local first responders across the Hill Country were also watching the weather. They were on standby in case things got bad.
In Austin, the state emergency operation center, which was activated more than 600 days ago in response to the pandemic, went into weather mode. The governor directed several agencies to send in staff by Thursday morning. It was done to ramp up lines of communication with the power grid and roadways, as well as Health and Human Services.
There were those, however, who admit to not being completely prepared.
"Well I just went and bought this jacket in Marble Falls, and we are a little surprised, but I am. I know they were closing golf courses in Austin, so I had a little idea of it, but this wind is chilly," said Scott Bradley.
At Thomas Hullum’s barbershop, the weather was a topic of discussion. Hair was falling off clippers inside faster than the thermometer seemed to be dropping outside.
"The wind blowing, like it is, is what makes it so uncomfortable. Of course, we have a lot of Cedar in this country, if it catches on fire around here, it’ll go just like it did in Bastrop County," said Hullum.
The fire threat remained high because of the low humidity, which was also a reason why most of the icy precipitation was not sticking around.
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MORE HEADLINES:
Central Texas under Winter Storm Advisory, freezing rain & sleet possible
Cold weather shelters, warming centers opened in Austin
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