NDSU Bison fans watching the National Championship game in Texas tomorrow, particularly those actually in Frisco, will notice that the weather in northern Texas is quite chilly and breezy. This cool weather is following several days of warm weather and a round of showers and thunderstorms. For the weather to drop some 30 degrees in a day might seem like very un-Southern weather, but this is routine across the South in January and February. In fact, it happens often enough that Texans have a name for it. They call this sort of windy, cool weather a "Blue Norther."
During summer, the cold fronts are rare in the South, but in winter, they are routine, bringing occasional bursts of freezing weather, which cause widespread discomfort for Southerners and even push the limits of local infrastructure, resulting in things like burst water pipes. The Dallas area gets a little light snow almost every winter, but heavy snow and lingering snow cover are extremely rare.
