2008-09 Texas Winter Weather Thread

[Shoshana]

From Weather Underground

At noon...the cold front stretched from La Grange to New Braunfels to south of del Rio and was moving southward. Temperatures are dropping 10 to 15 degrees with the initial frontal passage with winds shifting to the north at 15 to 20 mph. Local mesonet reports indicate that temperatures were at or below freezing across northwest Llano County. Patchy light rain and drizzle will continue south of the front. Patchy light rain and drizzle occasionally mixed with sleet and snow is possible across The Hill Country and Edwards Plateau...changing to light freezing rain where temperatures have fallen below 32 degrees. Rainfall amounts will range from a trace to a few hundredths of an inch.

All I know is ... it's cold and raw out there.

My mom near Plano and my sister in Lewisville haven't seen anything icy yet.. I haven't yet heard from family in Aubry yet tho. My BIL had to go into work in Arlington - I hope they shut down early so he can come home...

[JenBayles]

I'm prodding Dave to head out and pick up another stash of firewood. Doesn't matter if we see ice or not: MUST HAVE FIRE!

[Portastorm]

Temps continue to slowly fall in the AUS metro area and Hill Country. As of lunchtime, it's 33 in Fredericksburg, 34 in Lago Vista, 35 in Round Rock, and upper 30s in most of AUS.

I'm still a bit skeptical that this ends up being much of an event for Austin proper. I could see icing in the Hill Country and areas north of town. I dunno. I guess we'll see.

Folks in attendance at the Capitol today for Governor Perry's "State of the State" address who decided to go outside for lunch were greeted outside by very blustery conditions. Temps downtown in the upper 30s with gusty north winds and light rain. This is all based on my 3-block walk to Quiznos. Bbrrrrr!

[southerngale]

It's still a toasty 73 here. It looks like lows in the 30's all week, no frozen precip expected... pretty normal for January.

Good luck to those who might be dealing with ice, though. Stay safe!

[Tireman4]

So far the Houston metro area is ok, no?

No sleeping in late and rolling on crunchy back yard grass with the kids for me, it looks like.


But I'm always a half glass full optimist. Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? And its not over now!

You dang right Bluto. LOL

[somethingfunny]

The freeze has finally pushed through Grayson County. There's a very light glaze on the railings, trees, and cars. But nothing falling from the sky currently. Give the grass and the streets some time to freeze up...and then everything that falls after that is going to result in net accumulations.

Classes weren't cancelled, so I used (lol) a plastic fork to scrape the ice off my windshield and drive to the college at around 9:30 this morning and attempt to learn mathematics. Afternoon classes were cancelled. Never mind that it's clearly above freezing now....cars that were glazed with ice this morning and haven't moved are now merely wet again....they should have cancelled the morning class and let the afternoon classes go on. Then again, I don't like math.

The roads were icy with no precip at 10am....at 1pm, I'd say the icing had waned some, but it's drizzling again.

NWS thermometer at the airport 5 miles south of me (and about .5 miles from my college) says it's 32°. I need to invest in a thermometer or two of my own.

Round two should begin around sunset.

[gboudx]

The freeze has finally pushed through Grayson County. There's a very light glaze on the railings, trees, and cars. But nothing falling from the sky currently. Give the grass and the streets some time to freeze up...and then everything that falls after that is going to result in net accumulations.

Classes weren't cancelled, so I used (lol) a plastic fork to scrape the ice off my windshield and drive to the college at around 9:30 this morning and attempt to learn mathematics. Afternoon classes were cancelled. Never mind that it's clearly above freezing now....cars that were glazed with ice this morning and haven't moved are now merely wet again....they should have cancelled the morning class and let the afternoon classes go on. Then again, I don't like math.

The roads were icy with no precip at 10am....at 1pm, I'd say the icing had waned some, but it's drizzling again.

NWS thermometer at the airport 5 miles south of me (and about .5 miles from my college) says it's 32°. I need to invest in a thermometer or two of my own.

Round two should begin around sunset.

Next time use the Texas icescraper. It's called a credit card or your driver's license.

[Shoshana]

Temps continue to slowly fall in the AUS metro area and Hill Country. As of lunchtime, it's 33 in Fredericksburg, 34 in Lago Vista, 35 in Round Rock, and upper 30s in most of AUS.

I'm still a bit skeptical that this ends up being much of an event for Austin proper. I could see icing in the Hill Country and areas north of town. I dunno. I guess we'll see.

Folks in attendance at the Capitol today for Governor Perry's "State of the State" address who decided to go outside for lunch were greeted outside by very blustery conditions. Temps downtown in the upper 30s with gusty north winds and light rain. This is all based on my 3-block walk to Quiznos. Bbrrrrr!

I'm thinking it's not going to be much here either. Mostly cold and yucky. The cold is spilling in from around our lovely tract home double pain windows and freezing my feet!

[JenBayles]

Still 78 here in Bear Creek. I've got the AC running!

[srainhoutx]

Still 78 here in Bear Creek. I've got the AC running!

Hang on JenBayles. Front just moved through my location and temp dropped 10 degrees in about 10 minutes.

[JenBayles]

Unbelievable. No sooner did I post than I went out to move the sprinker and... BRRRRR!!!!

Word of caution on the dry weather here: we've been pulling copperheads out of our pool. I assume they're looking for water, and I'm watering hoping to keep them in their own nests and out of my pool.

[somethingfunny]

Next time use the Texas icescraper. It's called a credit card or your driver's license.

LOL I had forgotten about that. The fork worked fine though.

Dark low clouds are rolling into my area now from the WSW and I'm pretty sure I saw a flash of lightning a few minutes ago. Got a couple icicles of 2-3" in length hanging from the branches behind my apartment, and the raindrops on the windowpane definitely aren't going anywhere.

Currently on radar it looks like the leading band stretches from Grayson-Denton counties, with several bands behind it, all slowly building south while moving ENE.

Yep, that was another lightning flash.

I dare say it's go time here in Grayson County!

[jasons2k]

Front went thru here a few minutes ago as well, and it's already cool again. Yuck.

[gboudx]

Next time use the Texas icescraper. It's called a credit card or your driver's license.

LOL I had forgotten about that. The fork worked fine though.

Dark low clouds are rolling into my area now from the WSW and I'm pretty sure I saw a flash of lightning a few minutes ago. Got a couple icicles of 2-3" in length hanging from the branches behind my apartment, and the raindrops on the windowpane definitely aren't going anywhere.

Currently on radar it looks like the leading band stretches from Grayson-Denton counties, with several bands behind it, all slowly building south while moving ENE.

Yep, that was another lightning flash.

I dare say it's go time here in Grayson County!

All the "action" has not been in Rockwall today. It's just wet with nothing frozen out here. I suspect that'll change since the temp has dropped to 30 so far.

[JenBayles]

I know this is a Texas thread, but ... WOW. Reminds me of a huge ice storm we had in Kansas when I was in 5th grade. Had to walk home with my younger brother and dodge snapping power lines to get there. Power was out for a week and we were on the last few sticks of firewood when it was restored.


BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
LOCAL AREA EMERGENCY
RELAYED BY NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TULSA OK
208 PM CST TUE JAN 27 2009

THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE IS TRANSMITTED AT THE REQUEST OF THE TOWN OF
WESTVILLE.

WESTVILLE CITY AND EMERGENCY MANAGERS HAVE REQUESTED THAT ALL
RESIDENTS OF WESTVILLE REMAIN INDOORS UNTIL ADVISED OTHERWISE.
MANY DOWNED POWER LINES IN WESTVILLE REMAIN ENERGIZED AND
CONTINUE TO BE A SIGNIFICANT HAZARD TO THE PUBLIC. DOWNED TREES IN
THE CITY OF WESTVILLE ARE MAKING THE RECOVERY PROCESS EVEN MORE
DIFFICULT. MOST CITY STREET ARE INACCESSABLE AT THIS TIME.

ADDITIONALLY...SURFACE WINDS ARE FORECAST TO INCREASE TO 10 TO 15
MILES AN HOUR ACROSS MOST OF ADAIR COUNTY. FALLING TREES AND TREE
BRANCHES WILL BECOME A HAZARD AS WELL.

RESIDENTS OF WESTVILLE SHOULD CALL THE WESTVILLE POLICE DEPARTMENT
TO REPORT ANY EMERGENCIES AT 9 1 8 7 2 3 5 8 3 2.

[Ed Mahmoud]

Excitement level picking up near Dallas...




15º F difference between IAH and HOU, pretty effectively marking the leading edge of the front.

[gboudx]

Here's the MyOwnRadar from WFAA in DFW. Click the Winterize radio button to see what the p-type is.

http://www.wfaa.com/weather/myownradar/dfw/

[jasons2k]

Interesting - most of the surface reports NW of the Metroplex now report snow. The radar signature also looks like snow. I wonder if this will turn into an unexpected hefty snowfall for North Texas.

[iorange55]

Interesting - most of the surface reports NW of the Metroplex now report snow. The radar signature also looks like snow. I wonder if this will turn into an unexpected hefty snowfall for North Texas.

When we've had precip here tonight it's been mostly little snow flurries, the heaviest stuff is still out to the west, who knows if it will be snow or freezing rain, hopefully snow.


Well just went outside, it's freezing rain now, the ground is all crunchy and there is a light glaze on the tree limbs.


http://radar.weather.gov/radar.php?rid= ... 11&loop=no

Looks pretty strong.

[somethingfunny]

I'm currently experiencing heavy sleet mixing with the freezing rain. Already estimate 1-2 tenths of an inch ice accumulation on most surfaces.

It DOES look like I'm going to be in a heavy precip band for several more hours based on the radar.