This story is part of our “Reasons to Love Houston” package, published in the Spring 2025 issue.

There are, actually, some things to love about Houston weather...stick with us. Yes, hurricane season is taxing and traumatic. Yes, the sweltering heat of our summers makes us “humad” all season. But we found some reasons to embrace the city’s climate. Okay, we found three reasons.

Going all out on Halloween decorations to overcompensate.

We’re still wiping the sweat off our brows, but that will absolutely not stop us from celebrating the spookiest time of year. After all, what’s spookier than 90 degrees in October? Bring on the (iced) pumpkin spice latte and the yard swag. We’ve observed many an elaborate Halloweenscape on people’s front lawns over the years. Quite a few Houstonians have snagged the 12-foot Home Depot skeleton (that’s “Skelly” to you) that went viral upon its release in 2020. The prop is now hard to get, making its presence on someone’s property somewhat of a status symbol.

Elsewhere, armies of skeletons, even the odd giant spider, climb up local houses. Cemeteries with scary or funny gravestone epitaphs sprawl across lawns. There’s been a noticeable rise in gaudy inflatables; frankly, we’re not sure how we feel about that. Must we really have a view of 17 giant blow-up characters from your kids’ favorite movies? But if you believe “the gaudier, the better,” head to Nightmare on Candy Cane Lane, the annual Halloween spectacle on Robinson Road in Missouri City. Animatronic figures are a fixture here, from clowns whose eyes light up to dolls decapitating their teddy bears.

The pleasant, mild winters (except for that one time*).

Fifty-eight degrees. That’s the average temperature of Houston winters (November to February) over the past decade.

Listen, not everyone will agree with this one. We get it. Some of y’all just love your seasons. While the sweltering summers and lack of leaf peeping do make us frowny-face, we appreciate being able to walk around in a T-shirt in December. Sorry, not sorry.

*The 2021 freeze will forever make us spiral into hardcore prepper mode every time the forecast flirts ever so slightly south of 32˚F.

When that first cool front of the season hits: a poem.

Bayou dwellers languish in summer’s inferno
Hoping, praying for the wind to so much as blow
Sticky with sweat from the merciless Houston sun
Teases come and go, yet relief is on the run
Until…what’s that? A sweet sensation thought long lost
The subtle caress of an old lover, star-crossed
A breeze! A crispness in the air! And a tire light
Greet us one morning as we eagerly take flight
A cool front, they say. By God we’ll take it, we say
The bayou dwellers smile wide and lay off their horn
Exultant, making plans, rid of the summer’s scorn
Gallivanting outside before the next beating
For, alas, we know too well this will be fleeting