Winter is officially arriving in west Texas this week. Already a strong cold front has plowed through almost the entire state, bringing an end to the unseasonably warm fall weather we have been having. Just Friday we were in the mid 70s across west Texas!
Current temps are still above freezing across most of west Texas, but with the sun setting that will soon change. A cold rain took place overnight, and through much of today from the Lubbock area north through the Texas Panhandle, while some reports of snow, as much as two inches, fell in the Amarillo area, despite temps remaining slightly above freezing today.
Tonight should be mostly calm on the precipitation side this evening, but as an area of low pressure will slide east out of northern Mexico and in to far west Texas, precipitation will be on the increase, and could bring anything from cold rain to sleet to heavy snow, depending on your location. Currently, the largest amounts of snow through late Monday appear they will fall over the Davis and Guadalupe mountains of far west Texas and eastern New Mexico as depicted in the graphic below.
As the low shifts further eastward, larger snow amounts are expected to shift eastward with it, bringing in heavier snows across the Permian Basin and Texas South Plains. This is a classic winter weather setup for west Texas.
There is still some questions in the forecast models about the mode of precipitation, some favoring rain/sleet mix, and others favoring snow, and thus the only Winter Storm Watches issues so far have been for the mountain areas to the west. This could change soon though as forecasters have great confidence in the evolution of this system, so stayed tuned to your local media sources, and have your NOAA Weather Radio on. You can also check the National Weather Service pages for updates at:
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/lub/
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/maf/
Should a good snowfall indeed come to life, I’ll certainly be out gathering pictures and video for all you folks!
Tags: snow, winter weather
Good luck on seeing some snow!