What is Austin like during the winter? Does it get bare and ugly like the midwest? How cold does it get? Thanks!

I'm not sure what winter is like where you currently live but Austin winters are very mild by midwest standards. I have seen snow in Austin but it is very rare. Very cold for Austin is in the 20's or 30's. Do a search on weather.com and it will tell the average temp for any month of the year.

LEt me put it to you this way...we moved away from Austin in 1996...that winter there was a day of ice. We moved back this year, and we had a day of ice. It was the first time it had iced over since 1996

Austin is not as charming in the winter as it is in the spring. Naturally, all the trees are bare, and the ground is brown. However, it is still a pretty place despite that.

And you never can tell. You may have days in the 60's and sunny...and the next morning a high of 32 with rain. But NOTHING as cold as the midwest.

Thanks for the information! I have one more question. How long is the "brown and bare" season? In the midwest it's six months long.

IT really just depends. If we had a drought that summer, things will already have turned brown. However, usual is about November to beginning of March. And again, that March depends on not just warmer weather, but if we've seen some rain. That's one thing I love, when it starts getting warmer and nice, but things aren't blooming, you have one good rain and I swear, it's almost like within a matter of hours afterwards, things start looking green. Wildflower season starts in April, but they start blooming late March.

Brany is correct - really brown is mid November to early March. However, there are many trees in Austin (and TX in general) that are evergreen, so it's never totally barren. Many homeowners plant winter ryegrass and have green lawns thru out the winter.

This year we had two ice storms. The only good thing about that is the days off work. Paid.

By the way, I remember a couple years ago it reached 99 degrees on Feb. 28th. It was 96 here a few days ago. I'd say the average "winter" temps are about 50 during the day.

Spring can begin in February or as late as April---which is when it began this year.

April is usually a great time of year. The end of April or beginning of May can be ugly and over-cast looking b/c Mexico burns its crops that time of year. If the wind is blowing our way, we get smoke and allergies as a result.