Winter Storm in Texas, January 7 to 8, 1997

A strong cold front moved southward into central Texas on the evening of Saturday, January 4th, and for the next three days, colder air continued to filter southward into the area. By early Tuesday morning, an upper level system to the west had begun a slow approach toward south Texas, and widespread light rain began changing into sleet across the western part of the Texas Hill Country. The sleet developed into a wintery precipitation mixture of sleet, freezing rain and snow across the Hill Country by Tuesday evening as the upper level system continued to draw closer. The only reports of sleet across the remainder of South Central Te3xas were very random and indicated no significant accumulations. The upper level system passed across the area early the next morning. By 1000 on the morning of Wednesday, January 8th, the sleet and snow had changed back into light rain and all winter advisories and warnings were cancelled. Residents of the area from Burnet to Austin and Georgetown reported the heaviest accumulations of ice and sleet. Over 60,000 residents suffered power outabes across the area due to tree limbs falling onto power lines. Many of the outages continued for as long as five days. One sentimental casualty of the storm in Williamson County was a large oak tree located in front of the county courthouse and known as the "courthouse oak." Its actual age was not known, but it was estimated to have been several centuries old. The tree, weakened several years earlier by disease, drought and earlier storms, lost all its limbs in this event, and was destroyed. Hundreds to thousands of limbs were lost across central Texas due to the weight of ice, sleet and snow. Many residents referred to this storm as the "worst winter storm in the past 25 years or more."