Air-conditioning is recommended for maximum comfort. Daytime temperatures are moderate, and nights are cool. Are southeasterly to south-southeasterly throughout the year, peaking in May and again in September. Averages 309 days, with frost-free period running from February 9 to December 15. Oil, gas and petrochemical production contribute to the economy, which is further diversified among tourism, area retailing, seaport activity, farming, ranching and operations of a Naval Air Station and Army Depot.
Water is another important factor.
The county is the center of agribusiness activity for the Coastal Bend region. It contains two major grain export elevators on the ship channel that handle sorghum, corn and wheat as well as two cotton compress warehouses which can handle over 800,000 bales of cotton per year. Nueces County has 12 grain elevators and 12 cotton gins which handle the 60-70 million dollars worth of raw cotton and grain commodities produced in the county per year. The terrain of this lower coastal county is flat, consisting of rich soils broken by bays, the Nueces River and Petronilla Creek. The county area includes the offshore Mustang Island and the north tip of Padre Island, gateway to Padre Island National Seashore.