Posted: Wed, 22 Dec 2010 11:47 AM - 8,699 Readers

By: Guillermo X. Garcia

The first day of winter in San Antonio and South Texas was warm enough for T-shirts and shorts, and that might be the norm for the next few months, with forecasters predicting unseasonably warm and dry weather.

Since Oct. 1, the region's temperatures have been about 15 to 18 degrees above normal, said National Weather Service forecaster Pat McDonald.

Elsewhere in Texas, Houston and Austin hit record highs Tuesday, though San Antonio fell a few degrees short of a record.

McDonald attributed the unusually warm weather here, as well as the cold rain pelting the northwestern part of the country, to La Niña, a weather event guided by cold Pacific Ocean waters.

He said high temperatures this time of year average in the upper 50s and that lows are typically in the upper 30s. By contrast, recent highs have averaged in the low 70s, with lows in the low 50s.

La Niña “is causing much colder temperatures and more rain to fall in Central California, Oregon and Washington, and that, in turn, is keeping our region drier and warmer than normal,” he said.

San Antonio is on track this year to register the second-driest final quarter on record. It would also be among the warmest.

The weather service said that as of Tuesday, the region had recorded .43 inches of rain since Oct. 1. That's just .20 inches more than was registered in the driest October-December period on record, in 1950.

But the precipitation total could change with two cold fronts headed to South Texas, McDonald said.

A front coming today will drop temperatures only slightly, McDonald said, but a front projected to hit later in the week should bring considerably colder temperatures and a slight chance of rain, he said.

On Christmas Day, temperatures are not expected to climb above the mid-50s. At night, they will fall into the upper 20s, thanks to the second front, expected in the area Thursday evening


Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/default/article/La-Ni-a-blamed-for-warmer-winter-weather-914384.php#ixzz18rrkly51.

*  Story Contributed by: Guillermo X. Garcia