With 2025 now in the rearview mirror, it’s worth taking a moment to look back at the weather that made it a unique year for East Texas.
Studying long-term averages can be misleading. Mark Twain famously warned us about lies and statistics – and while the quote isn’t fit to print here, the point stands. A year can look “average” on paper and still behave anything but average in your landscape or fields.
Total rainfall recorded at the Angelina County Airport (our official weather recording station) came in at 46.4 inches for the year. The 35-year average is 50.34 inches. At first glance, that puts 2025 only slightly below normal. However, like most years, that number hides the hard truth about when the rain actually fell.
The first eight months of the year were at or above normal rainfall. In fact, by the end of June, we were nearly eight inches ahead of average. July ran a little short, August was about normal, and then, starting September 1, the spigot shut off.
September is officially recorded at just 0.07 inches of rainfall. Much of October followed the same pattern, with only a few late-month showers offering limited relief. November was dry, and December was even drier, failing to reach a full inch of rain.
This sharp contrast had very different effects depending on who you were working with.
In home landscapes, irrigation systems that hadn’t been needed all year suddenly had to work overtime. I worked with one homeowner who didn’t turn on her sprinklers until September — and then had quite the water bill just to keep her plants alive.
For forage producers, hay production across Angelina County and much of East Texas was normal to well above normal through the growing season. Many producers harvested excellent first and second cuttings. In some cases, second and third cuttings were never harvested at all. Those hay cuttings were either grazed off or left standing because there was already more hay than needed.
So much hay was produced that some producers began feeding as early as October. While that may sound like a terrible decision, early feeding helped them utilize last year’s carryover hay in which they already had invested time and money.
For hay producers and cattlemen enrolled in rainfall insurance programs, 2025 was an exceptional year. Strong forage production through summer followed by a sharp fall dry period created favorable conditions for both grazing and insurance payouts.
Temperature-wise, the year was remarkably unremarkable – and that’s a good thing.
Aside from a warm February and an unusually warm Christmas period, daily temperature data from the airport show that most of the year stayed within normal ranges. February did set a few high-temperature records, but the growing season itself was steady and forgiving. Notably, temperatures never reached 100 degrees all year.
For gardeners and agricultural producers alike, 2025 serves as a reminder that averages don’t tell the whole story. Timing matters. Distribution matters. And a year that looks ordinary on paper can behave very differently where it counts – in the pasture, the hayfield, and the landscape.
