The weather in San Antonio can feel extreme sometimes. But we are nowhere close to the most extreme weather compared to other cities in the US. We’re not anywhere close to the hottest, most humid, warmest, or even least cold in winter. In fact San Antonio holds practically zero national extreme weather records. But, the lack of extreme weather is what makes San Antonio, and really the entire central Texas region, a surprising location for a great combination of seasonal weather.
San Antonio doesn’t hold the record for the most sunny days in a year (that’s Phoenix). We do get a lot of sunshine though and a lot
of sunshine means a lot of heat. Though 2023 was a record-breaking year for summer temperatures here with over 100 days over 100 degrees, Phoenix regularly sees more than a hundred 100-degree days and saw over 130 days with scorching temperatures in that same year. When you think about our weather here in San Antonio it’s easy to get caught up on how hot it gets here in summer. It is undeniably hot here in the summer. Still, when you compare our year-round temperatures and weather patterns with other parts of the country, San Antonio has mild weather all year round.
San Antonio has over 220 sunny days per year (the national average is over 2 weeks lower at 205 days). Summer days here get a whopping 14 hours of sunshine. So even during the hot season from June to mid-September, where daily highs are regularly over 90 degrees, you can get your daily dose of vitamin D in the mornings before the heat of the day sets in.
Though we don’t officially have the highest number of sunny days, more than half of the days throughout the year are recorded as partially cloudy. This means we often have a little bit of cloud cover on hot days and we rarely see a truly cloudy day. What the weatherman calls partially cloudy makes for some great Texas sunsets.
San Antonio doesn’t hold the record for the warmest winter weather either that’s all the major cities in southern California and Hawaii. But we are one of the warmest and driest during the winter months. That combination is key. What it means for us here in the Alamo City is that we very rarely have to drive in snowy or icy conditions. Temperatures also rarely dip below freezing. Our winter days are actually some of the most lovely with more than 40 days in winter when the temperature climbs to at least 70 or 80 °F. Depending on their metrics for measuring, San Antonio does sometimes manage to finally top the charts on national weather records for Cities With Ideal Fall Weather, specifically in November. That’s likely because most other parts of the US are already used to seeing freezing temperatures by Thanksgiving when us here in central Texas still haven’t seen a freeze.
More great news, San Antonio also doesn’t even come close to holding the record for cities with the highest relative humidity, or hottest days, even in Texas. While there’s no doubt we see some hot weather during the peak of summer, there are many cities that see much greater extremes. The title for the hottest city in Texas goes to Laredo with average summertime high temperatures of over 100 °F. Brownsville has the highest humidity in Texas with a sweltering average annual relative humidity of 90%.
We’ve really got the perfect mix. It’s just that our weather patterns may mean that our time spent outdoors is a bit off-season. We’ve learned to beat the heat with pools and rivers to keep us cool in July and August. That makes September through December and March through April the perfect time to get outside and enjoy the great mild weather. Our coldest and cloudiest days are in January and February so grab a blanket and cozy up by the fire for a few days of winter weather. The month with the most wet days is March, but with only about 9 days getting rainfall and only accumulating a total of about 3 inches of rain. October can see a decent amount of rain as well. But keep in mind that only 82 days of the year get enough rain to measure in San Antonio. Most other places in the US see more than 100 days of precipitation or more.
Chances are it going to be a beautiful day tomorrow, so get out and enjoy San Antonio. If not, just wait a few days, the weather is bound to change.
