San Antonio, the Alamo City, is often regarded as the Heart of Texas, for its illustrious past and its cosmopolitan present have come to symbolize the rich heritage of the state. The oft-quoted humorist Will Rogers is said to have called San Antonio "one of America's four unique cities," and this Sun Belt metropolis takes pride in its reputation. As large in population as the bustling Dallas, San Antonio retains its small-town flavor while serving as the headquarters for five of the country's major military installations. Besides government, the city's third largest industry, trade, high-technology services, and tourism also profit the local economy. Visitors by the millions are drawn to the city's meandering River Walk, the eighteenth-century Spanish missions, and of course, the site where Davey Crockett, Jim Bowie, William Travis, and 185 others made their last stand in the name of freedom from Mexico. The coexistence of the old and new is one reason San Antonio is viewed as an attractive place to relocate or visit.

San Antonio's weather is alternately dry or humid depending on prevailing winds, turning hot in the summer, mild to cool winters subject to descending northern cold fronts in the winter with cool to cold nights, and comfortably warm and rainy in the spring and fall. San Antonio receives about a dozen sub-freezing nights each year, occasionally (about once every couple winters) seeing some sort of wintry precipitation (i.e. sleet/freezing rain), but accumulation and snow itself is not very common. Many winters may pass without any freezing precipitation at all. According to the National Weather Service, there have been 31 instances of snowfall (a trace or more) in the city in the past 122 years, for an average of about once every 4 years. However a decade or more may pass between snowfalls.