The Inevitable One or Two Snow Days of South Austin

It happened again. Like clockwork.

Austin, Texas gets a day or two of sub-zero temperatures and suddenly the city feels like it hit the pause button. Roads empty. Schools close. Group texts light up with photos of frozen lawns like we’ve just discovered a new planet. The first few years I lived here, I thought it was a joke.

I grew up in Utah. Literally on the side of a mountain. I learned to drive in snow. It’s not that hard. Slow down. Pay attention. Don’t panic when your car hits ice. Steer into it. Breathe. So when Austin shut down for what looked like a light dusting, I was confused. Mildly judgmental. Definitely smug. What I didn’t realize is that Texas doesn’t have the support system for snow and ice. And in a very real way, it doesn’t make sense to build one.

In Utah, they spend half the year dealing with winter. They have fleets of snowplows. De-icing trucks. Entire departments whose sole job is “keep the roads alive.” Major highways get cleared overnight because they have to. Austin doesn’t have that. Because Austin doesn’t need that. Our weather is our snowplow.

We rarely stay below freezing for more than 24 hours. The city isn’t broken. It’s just… waiting. Waiting for the sun to do what it always does. Melt everything and pretend none of this ever happened. So instead of fighting it, here’s my advice. Lean into it.

Take the day off. Light the fireplace for the one day of the year it’s actually worth using. Let your kids play outside when there’s no traffic. Watch your neighborhood turn into a movie set where nobody’s in a hurry.

Our kids pulled out boogie boards, took the wheels off their skateboards, and rode down the icy driveway like it was a resort. They ran back inside for hot chocolate and time in front of the fire. No schedule. No rush. Just a rare pause.

Austin isn’t a cold-weather city. It doesn’t pretend to be.

But if you lean into those one or two frozen days a year, you get a little taste of winter without committing to six months of it. You get your snow fix and then you move on.

Who needs a Park City vacation anyway?