Kevin's Blog

One of the wonderful things about working at a University is the week off at Christmas. While my students disperse across the continent for home-cooked meals and apprehension over semester grade reports, I get a chance to come back home to Austin, Texas and enjoy the epicenter of live music, breakfast tacos, and diversity - weather diversity, that is!

The temperature on this day after Christmas in Austin hit 81F, tying the record high for the day. Before you get too amazed at this late-spring-like temperature, the previous record was set only four years ago. Two of the warmest post-Christmas Day temperatures in Austin have occurred in the last four years. Now, before you start thinking that this is going to be a global warming blog, it's not, so it is safe to read on.

Last year on this date in Austin it was only 58F! Of course last year it was a record-breaking 85F on December 2nd. What about December 2nd in Austin this year? Try a record low of 25F! What is it with these 60F swings in temperature in December in Central Texas? Is this a new development? Or has it always been this way?

If you look at the promotional materials sent to Europe to encourage settlement in the newly independent Republic of Texas in the 1840s, the target audience for this ad campaign was farmers. The marketing strategy? Promote Texas weather!

One specific group of Czech farmers saw the advertisements about the weather in Texas being superior to that in their own homeland, especially in winter, and braved the 14-week boat excursion across the Atlantic to Galveston, Texas in the fall of 1856. I am guessing that this ad campaign was no different than turning on the television today and seeing commercials for the Bahamas, Caribbean cruises, Cancun and Cozumel and the like. Amongst this group of eight Czech families were Ignac Sramek and Johanna Muzny.

As you might expect, things didn't quite go as planned for these Czech settlers. On their very first night in Texas, the small group was pelted by a cold driving rain that turned into a fierce ice and sleet storm from which their shelter was only a grove of oak trees. Although they were able to build a fire, this group was undoubtedly questioning the accuracy of the weather information in the promotional materials of the day. It was also the first instance of Czech-language profanity aimed at meteorologists in Texas!

That night, the group made an executive meteorological decision. They were not about to head any farther north. The wisdom of that decision was validated the next day when sunny skies and mild temperatures allowed for the building of what became a permanent settlement - the first Czech settlement in Texas.

The families in this settlement commemorated their survival of the ice storm and the warm weather that followed by naming their town Dubina, which is Czech for "grove of oak trees." The town is located in Fayette County near the east bank of the Navidad River, about 70 miles southeast of Austin. It is a place where the same 60F swings in temperature that we observe today allowed for a permanent settlement of immigrants 152 years ago, and whose descendants still inhabit this region.

Although there are countless stories of the juxtaposition of immigrants and weather in the history of our great land, this one has special meaning to me. Ignac Sramek and Johanna Muzny are my great-great-great grandparents. As a direct descendant of these ice storm survivors, I was likely destined to be a meteorologist. As such, I have learned to appreciate and welcome an 80-degree day in December, and the 60-degree temperature swings that winter has always brought to Central Texas.

If you have any weather stories about your ancestors, I would love to hear about them! Please share them in the comment section below!

And if you were wondering about the title, it means Sunshine in Austin in the Moravian Czech dialect spoken in 1850!

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