WHO: Pretty much everybody in Texas.

WHAT: An honest-to-goodness cold front.

WHY IT’S SO GREAT: To say this summer has been long is a massive understatement. In much of the state, we were on the verge of 100 degree days well into October—to say nothing of the months that preceded it (San Antonio, for example, experienced the hottest September on record). The heat was brutal, it was oppressive, and it made us imagine a future in which we were road warriors, ravaged by climate change and fending off the apocalypse.

And then, today, we got a cold front.

A real cold front, too—in a lot of the state, the drop from Thursday to Friday weather was 50 degrees. Austin and Dallasites who had sweated into the 90’s on Thursday awoke to temperatures in the 40’s—not just sweater weather, but “go ahead and grab your coat” weather. In Amarillo, where temperatures had been in the 80’s just a day earlier, it was damn near freezing in the mid-morning. Out in El Paso, which had been experiencing weather in the 80’s yesterday, temps dropped a relatively modest 30 degrees. In Houston, the drop was closer to 15 degrees, as the cold front rolled in over the morning and brought temperatures to the upper 60’s.

In some parts of Texas, people are still awaiting their break from the heat—as of press time, it’s 89 degrees in McAllen and 78 in Beaumont. But they’ll get it, too. It’ll drop 30 degrees overnight down in the Valley, and folks in Beaumont can expect to wake up tomorrow to temperatures in the mid-50’s.

Ping-ponging between extremes isn’t necessarily the ideal way to experience seasons, of course. A gentle transition from the interminable summer heat to pleasantly autumnal temperatures then a Texas winter would be nice. But weather extremes do seem to be in our future, one way or the other, and beggars can’t be choosers. Once this cold front moves on—which should happen early next week—much of the state can expect some proper October weather, with highs in the 70’s and 80’s most of the week, at least for a while. (Even in currently-frigid Amarillo, the high on Monday is 77.)

But if you’ve been exhausted at the mere thought of going outside, and spent your afternoons cursing the life-giving sun for the misery its heat brings to your days, then any break is a nice break.