Raising a crop in Texas is a lot like playing poker. No matter how hard a farmer works or how much he knows about farming, he can still lose his shirt if his luck goes bad. Pick a card. Plunging temperatures destroy crops worth millions.
Plants wither and die for lack of rain.
Floods rip through fields. Hailstorms smash crops to smithereens. Odds are the farmer will not get a bad card every time, but his chances of drawing a few are very good in Texas. Texas weather covers a wide range of extremes. Temperatures may plunge to minus 18 degrees in the High Plains and soar above the 110 degree mark in the Trans Pecos region.