How Texas weather impacts me and the wildlife I study

Lindsay Martinez

On the weekend before the start of this new semester, a tropical storm was on its way to Texas. By the end of the weekend, I was shocked to hear about the flooding impacts in parts of Dallas. A few Aggie events were rescheduled due to the foul weather, but I felt lucky to be minimally impacted by the storm myself. Still though, this latest bout of wacky weather had me thinking about all the climate-related events and changes I've experienced during my time in Texas. When I first began working in Texas two years ago in the months before starting graduate school at Texas A&M, I had to adjust to becoming a student again, starting a new research project, and moving across the country. I also had to adjust to the Texas weather. 

As someone from the landlocked state of Montana, which is along the United States' northern border, the world of coastal storms and intense heat was very new to me. I am quite terrified of the potential of a tropical storm's extreme winds and rains. We certainly don't have hurricanes where I am from. Texas hurricanes are often on my mind because of their relation to my graduate research in ocelot conservation deep in South Texas.  

Ocelots are a federally endangered species of small wild cat. Although there are many of them in Central and South America, the United States has only two small breeding populations of ocelots left, both located right along the Gulf of Mexico in South Texas. One concern for ocelot conservation that I have been studying is the potential of an intense tropical storm to negatively impact these cats, their prey, and their habitat (You can read more about my ocelot conservation project at RecoverTexasOcelots.org). Hurricanes are scary enough for me, and I cannot imagine experiencing one as an animal out on a vulnerable landscape. 

Another novelty of Texas weather is the temperature. It's still strange to me how uncomfortable it is to be out during the middle of a summer day in Texas. Can't I just walk outside without breaking into a sweat? Can't I do a little exercise during the day without worrying about approaching heat exhaustion? Can't I put on some long sleeves at night and enjoy the temperature dropping when the sun goes down? It turns out I can't. The high temperatures here in Texas are probably one of the reasons that ocelots, the cats I study, are generally more active at night than during the day. I think the timing of my behavior patterns in Texas - focusing my exercise time to the darker hours of the day - may be beginning to look a little like that of the ocelot. 

Although the Texas heat can be a little pesky sometimes, I'm getting pretty used to how to live in the heat and control my air conditioning system so that I don't spend a fortune. One thing I always say about Texas is that I think it's nice that it is almost always summer weather in the state. I can often wear shorts even in the middle of January. But let's not forget that Texas can get chilly, too. 

I was working on a ranch in South Texas when the Arctic Blast of February 2021 hit the state. The power went out, nobody knew how to drive, and all work nearly stopped for a week. And it was pretty cold. I bundled up in my winter hat and sweaters to go to sleep and I still felt cold! I guess buildings in Texas just aren't made to protect us from the cold. Nevertheless, within a day, it seemed like all the ice melted and the temperatures went back up. It was shocking to me how disruptive a little freezing weather was to Texas. Nothing in Texas was prepared for that first cold night. Not the people, the infrastructure, the plants, or the animals. In South Texas, scores of Gulf of Mexico-based fish washed up dead on the beaches and cold-stunned sea turtles had to be rescued by hardworking volunteers. Trees and bushes withered and lost their color, turning landscapes black or brown. I imagine that ocelots and other terrestrial wildlife were hiding somewhere deep in the Texas brush to insulate themselves. Later that year over the winter holidays, when I was at home with my family in Montana, we had days and days on end of below zero weather. Nobody really batted an eye though, especially my yellow lab who demanded to be walked despite the temperature that was causing my eyelashes to freeze. I can't imagine how Texans would have dealt with that weather! 

This school year, I'll be handling the Texas weather the best I can. I'll also continue learning about it, exploring everything from weather events to climate change during my research project and my various coursework in the department of Rangeland, Wildlife, and Fisheries Management. Every time I experience something noteworthy in the Texas weather, I'll be thinking about how the Texas wildlife is doing the same.