20 inches of snow? It really happened in Houston: Look back at the city's snow days


HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Snow in Houston doesn't happen every winter, but it does happen.

While this weekend's winter storm in Texas might not dump the white stuff on the Bayou City, the city is no stranger to dealing with copious amounts of snow.

In fact, since 1881, it has snowed 94 times in Houston.

Here are some of the major Houston snow events we dug up in our archives:

3 times in 1973
In the winter of 1973, it snowed three times, dropping 2 inches on Jan. 11, 1.4 inches on Feb. 9-10, and 1.4 inches on Feb. 17-18.

20 inches on Valentine's Day
The mother of all snows came on Valentine's Day in 1895. Houston was hit with 20 inches of snow on Feb. 14 and 15. The snow didn't just fall in Houston. It was a massive storm that dropped snow from Tampico, Mexico, to Pensacola, Florida, and set records in New Orleans and Alabama.

Snow in Market Square Houston, 1895



Snow returns after 34-year absence

It would be more than 30 years before Houston saw a decent amount of snow again. In 1929, 2.5 inches of snow fell on Dec. 21-22.

Powder to begin the '40s
In Jan. 1940, 3 inches of snow fell in Houston, and it snowed again in Jan. 1949, dropping 2.6 inches of snow.

Snow on the grounds of the Staiti House, Houston in 1940



Third largest snow amount in Houston
The second biggest snow in Houston history came on Feb. 12, 1960, with 4.4 inches of snow recorded.

The great Houston snow storm of 1960


It snowed seven times in the 1980s, with the most snow coming on Dec. 22, 1989, with 1.7 inches.

Houston's new record for earliest snowfall of the season is now Nov. 13, 2018.

Chasing snow flurries across southeast Texas


The latest snowfall recorded of the season occurred on March 22, 1968.

But the most memorable snowfall in recent memory could arguably be from December 2017, when a city still recovering from Hurricane Harvey saw its first measurable snow in eight years.

2017: Rare snowfall delights Houstonians
Snow in Texas
Copyright © 2024 KTRK-TV. All Rights Reserved.