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PREFACE is quite an impressive place. A newcomer is struck T;ysmany things: oil wells, Cadillacs, Brahman cattle, ten-gallon hats, friendliness, superlatives-and the weather. The famous Texas heat-"Too hot for the devil and too hot for men"-comes as no surprise; the newcomer expects it-and isn't disappointed1 The Texas norther is something else again; it usually takes the newcomer by complete surprise and makes quite an impression. One hot October day four years ago I felt the sudden chill blast of my first Texas norther, and I shall never forget it. In studying the historical literature of the Southwest, I observed that throughout the past most visitors to Texas were also mightily impressed by theis first norther. Their accounts are so interesting that I decided to collect them into book form, and the result is a sort of anthology of the norther. While I have read many, many accounts of northers, I have by no means read them all, and I hope that this work will induce others into collecting norther stories, both for tile fun involved and also to further an appreciation of the big role which the norther has played in the history and life of the Southwest. EDWARDHAKE PHILLIPS Houston, Texas March 7, 1954 INTRODUCTION ORTHER! It makes me cold to write the word."' So N wrote an army colol~elwho had just led his regiment through the teeth of a bitter storm on the Texas prairies in 1855. The colonel was the noted Albert Sidney Johnston, the regiment was the famed Second U.S. Cavalry, and the storm was one of the notorious Texas northers. The norther is a strong, sharp, chilling storm that swoops out of the north with sudden fierceness and races across the usually balmy prairies and plains of the Southwest-the Llano Estacado, the Black Waxy, the Coastal Riviera-climbs into the scattered mountains of the region-the Davis, the Guadalupe, the East- ern Siel~aMadres-spins out across the Gulf of Mexico, build- ing huge waves and scattering ships and birds, and finally piles up on the humid, mountainous coasts of Central and Southern Mexico. The norther is one of the most distinctive features of the Southwest scene-and certainly the most surprising, for visitors to Texas are little prepared to meet an Arctic breeze in the Sunny South. Moreover, the norther is more than an occasional Arctic wind gone astray; it is a regular feature of Texas life, particularly from September to May, during which time it carries on a see-saw battle with the warm Gulf breezes for dominance of the Texas plains and prairies. The heat and dlyness of Texas summers have been amply publi- cized, but the coolness of Texas winters and the striking role played by the norther in the life and history of the area has largely been neglected. Even the exotic Spanish iduence is tri3ing in comparison to the influence of the norther on Texas2 P The Texas Norther Texans, with some justice, have tried to assert a proprietary claim to the norther and have prefixed the word "Texas" to that storm as if it was born, bred, and buried within the Lone Star State. It is true that no state is so widely, so fre- quently, and so bitterly buffeted by the bIasts of the norther as Texas. However, the norther has its origin much farther north and west-the Canadian Rockies are its breeding ground. Moreover, it pays non-stop visits to Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico before taking out papers in the Lone Star State. And though the huge banks of tropical air from the Gulf will sometimes make a Texas captive of the norther, more often than not it will blast its way through the humid mass and visit the ports of Key West, Havana, Campeche, Vera Cruz, and Tampico, while bringing curses and anxiety to passengers and crews of ships on the Gulf. The Rio Grande has been an ineffectual barrier to the norther and consequently "El Norte" is almost as well known and feared in Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Coahuila, and Chihuahua as it is north of the border. In the deserts of western New Mexico, Arizona, northern Sonora, and southern California the tern1 "norther" is used for similar sudden northerly storms, but, though these northers are conceived in the same womb as the '"Texas" norther, they usually represent separate storms. On the other hand, the blizzard of the northern Plains has a very close lineal relationship to the Texas norther, for often both are part of the same huge air mass. If the one is a snow giant, noted for its huge drifts and sub-zero dives, the other is a speed demon and wind machine noted for its sudden appearances and its relentless buffeting; the difference is explained by the thermal condition of the separate regions which the vast storm visits. The already cold northern plains encourage snow, a more moderate pace, and lower tempera- tures; the warm plains and prairies of Texas have a warming Introduction 3 effect even on a coId norther, and the very warmth attracts the cold dense air mass into the humid "vacuum" at great rates of speed. But in any case Texas cowboys finding them- selves up the trail in Montana and encountering a Plains Blizzard were not so very wrong in labeling it a "norther7'- though to have called it a "Texas norther" would have been presumptuous. In many respects the norther bears a resemblance to the "chinook" of the north, though in reverse, for whereas a norther is a cold freezing wind, a chinook is a warm, thawing wind. Both are sudden, however, both usually come from the n~rthwest,~and both are exceptions to the prevailing climate; also both bring relief-the norther brings relief from the oppressive heat of the sub-tropics, the chinook brings relief from the biting cold of the snowbelt. On the other hand, the chinook is a friend of cattle, the norther an enemy, except when a "wet norther" brings moisture to the parched prairie. The norther also bears a resemblance to the pampero of South America and the mistral of the Mediterranean. The pampero is a strong, chilling wind that blows off the Andes and proceeds northeastwardly across the Argentine pampas just as the norther races so~theastwardl~across the Great Plains. The mistral also is cold, sudden, and even violent, blowing from out of the northwest into the Rhone valley and out over the Gulf of Lions, generally bringing "cloudless skies, brilliant sunshine, intense dryness and piercing cold.'"' The norther has three invariable characteristics: it is windy, it is cold, and it is sudden. The norther does not have the power of the Florida hurricane nor of a North Atlantic gale; it is not as cold as a Plains blizzard; but in suddenness, it walks off with the prize. The suddenness with which a norther will change the air from balmy spring to icy winter is SO The Texas Norther noteworthy that it has become immortalized in Texas folk- lore. The change is not very gradual but rather almost instantaneous. One of the early settlers, Moses Lapham, said, "It is often so warm that you are uncomfortable, without coat and jacket, and in less than two minutes the wind will turn from S. to N. and you will be shivering tlloug [sic] you are weighed down with the warmest clotl~ing."N.A. Taylor, touring Texas in the seventies, tells of an incident when he was riding along with an old Scotclman in warm, humid weather. The Scot was hot and had unbuttoned his shirt. Suddenly a norther put in its appearance, and "the old gentle- man said; 'What a cool pleasant breeze!"' However, ''in about two minutes he commenced buttoning up his clothing, and broke out: 'What a d--d cold windl' "G The suddenness of the norther would not be so striking, if it were not for its sharp, instantaneous effect on the temperature. There is no gradual cooling of the air but rather an abrupt drop in temperat~~re-severaldegrees in the first minute, perhaps 20 degsees in forty minutes and 50 degrees in the course of a day, or even in a few hours. Extreme claims have been made regarding these drops, one writer claiming that the thermometer once dropped 100" in a day and another boasting that the thermometer once fell three feet in a few seconds- off a nail on the walllT It makes a difference, of course, whether one calculates the drop from a thermometer in the sun or in the shade, and the large claims are undoubtedly based on calculations made in the sun before tile nortl-ter hit-and this seems justified, since to the man or animal on the treeless prairie, it is the temperature in the sun that is real not the temperature in the fictitious shade. To some extent native Texans know how to anticipate a norther, though even today with the aid of the weather Introduction 5 bureau they are not infrequently led astray, and newcomers are almost always caught unawares. The norther usually, though not always, gives some warning of its coming. The air seems to get unusually sultry and still several hours before the appearance of a dark cloud bank in the north. The English journalist, Edward Eng, upon his arrival in Texas in 1873, received his indoctrination from "a 'Norther' which came raving and tearing over the town, threatening to my fancy, to demolish even the housetops." Xing points otrt that "This 'dry norther' was the revulsion after the calm and sultry atmosphere of the preceding day.

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