Texas Winter 2015-2016

[Portastorm]

I'm on the other end of this storm. We are on the Carnival Magic headed back to Galveston, near 26.3n/90.5w. We've been experiencing sustained winds of 55 to 65 mph for the last hour and a half and had about 5 minutes of winds sustained at just over 70 mph.

Left Cozumel about 7pm last night. We are already running behind schedule about 4 hours due to having to turn around and head towards Cancun due to a medical emergency onboard. The Mexican Navy met our ship about 1:45 this morning and removed the passenger about 20 miles offshore from Cancun.

Actually surprised at how well the ship is handling the winds and seas. We are on deck 11 in the front and during the 70 mph winds there was little rocking although the wind noise was very loud. It's become a bit rougher now as time goes by though.

Not often we get these kind of reports. Thanks very much! Based on what satellite is showing tonight in the Gulf, I'm not surprised y'all are having some rough seas. Here's hoping it doesn't get too "rocking" out there.

[Brent]

I wonder if the glaze of ice I found on my car top just now will be the highlight of winter...

[ATCcane]

I'm on the other end of this storm. We are on the Carnival Magic headed back to Galveston, near 26.3n/90.5w. We've been experiencing sustained winds of 55 to 65 mph for the last hour and a half and had about 5 minutes of winds sustained at just over 70 mph.

Left Cozumel about 7pm last night. We are already running behind schedule about 4 hours due to having to turn around and head towards Cancun due to a medical emergency onboard. The Mexican Navy met our ship about 1:45 this morning and removed the passenger about 20 miles offshore from Cancun.

Actually surprised at how well the ship is handling the winds and seas. We are on deck 11 in the front and during the 70 mph winds there was little rocking although the wind noise was very loud. It's become a bit rougher now as time goes by though.

Not often we get these kind of reports. Thanks very much! Based on what satellite is showing tonight in the Gulf, I'm not surprised y'all are having some rough seas. Here's hoping it doesn't get too "rocking" out there.

Just back from dinner and they have cancelled the planned show for this evening. It's quite rough now. The wind is currently 69.8 kts....80.3mph. It had calmed down a bit into the 50s for a while but has picked back up again.

[DougNTexas]

Pretty bad when most of the weather is from a boat in the gulf.

[gpsnowman]

I wonder if the glaze of ice I found on my car top just now will be the highlight of winter...

You are not lying. Heavy frost this morning. I had to let my car run for a few minutes to melt the ice before leaving for work. It is a winter wonderland outside.

[wxman57]

Cheer up, everyone! There's a snow storm heading for north Texas. OK, it's the 384-hr panel of the 6Z GFS, but I'm sure you can trust it this time.

[gpsnowman]

Hearing reports of accidents due to the heavy frost freezing on bridges and overpasses. Some poor guy spun out over the highway 360 south bridge earlier. Dangerous out there this morning. The frost is so thick in spots it looks like it snowed overnight.

[Ntxw]

Yesterday may have been our best shot for awhile and missed. +PNA will establish dry NW flow, if it pokes out of the west then it may warm up above 60, if not mostly seasonal and dry. Unless next weekend's system digs significantly further south and west, it may be a threat to the east coast but NW flow here

Not all is discouraging, the good news is we have established the -AO. I can see the that the models are struggling to get it +. January's with very negative AO like this one often reverts back to more -AO in February

[CYCLONE MIKE]

Cheer up, everyone! There's a snow storm heading for north Texas. OK, it's the 384-hr panel of the 6Z GFS, but I'm sure you can trust it this time.

http://www.tropicaltidbits.com/analysis ... _us_52.png

You forgot to mention the 60's and 70's that start show up to the last week ofJanuary and ring in Feb with of course no artic outbreak in sight

I know this has nothing to do with y'all in Texas but just throwing it out there. Baton Rouge had 17 freezes with 5 of those dropping down in the 20's last year. This year barely 5. A couple of those only touching 32 for a few hours. Ready to get rid of this crappy weather and bring on spring and summer.

[hriverajr]

Snows in Saudi Arabia, but no cold weather in Texas:(

[Portastorm]

Just back from dinner and they have cancelled the planned show for this evening. It's quite rough now. The wind is currently 69.8 kts....80.3mph. It had calmed down a bit into the 50s for a while but has picked back up again.

Curious how the rest of the evening and this morning have gone out there? Care to offer another report?

Meanwhile, the weather the next few days looks slightly cooler than normal to normal for the Austin area. Sure wish we could get some rain. The spigot shut off after Christmas.

On a barely related note I am sure that some of you have already done this ... but I finally got my advanced SKYWARN training certificate yesterday, spending the day with the NWS, local mets, EM officials, and other related weather geeks. We had a great panel of presenters and teachers and I walked out of there with a lot more knowledge than I had walking in. I encourage you to do that in your local area when trainings come up, if you haven't already. Also, if you ever get a chance to hear Dr. Kevin Kloesel from OU ... don't miss it! He is hilarious and a great teacher. He has that skill in relating very technical scientific concepts in a "common joe" approach and he does it in a very humorous manner.

[hriverajr]

This is how I see things for rest of winter. Our best chance at winter weather for those of us in central Texas is for a bowling type 500 mb low from the west. The current pattern will do nothing for those south of the red river. There is a hint of perhaps western trough after about 10-14 days. It is possible we may not have a true arctic outbreak this winter at least until we start the transition to spring (even that's questionable). The current pattern for the most part does not allow storms to really develop until east of Texas. In fact west of I-35 its very dry.
One other note.. it is also becoming more likely that southeast Texas may not see any frozen fun at all.... I hope I am wrong.

There have been two predominant weather patterns this winter season, nothing much in between.

[ATCcane]

Just back from dinner and they have cancelled the planned show for this evening. It's quite rough now. The wind is currently 69.8 kts....80.3mph. It had calmed down a bit into the 50s for a while but has picked back up again.

Curious how the rest of the evening and this morning have gone out there? Care to offer another report.


We are just docking in Galveston. 12:15 pm. This is about 6 hours later than we've experienced in other cruises. The captain apologized for being so late but we had to slow down more than expected last night due to the winds. We probably had 8 hours of constant 50 to 65mph winds with occasional periods of 70 to 80 mph. This is of course based of the ships wind measuring equipment and assuming it's fairly accurate.

We went down for dinner and for most of it was tolerable, but while waiting for dessert the winds picked up again and at one point our water glasses were sliding off the table. We decided enough and headed back to the room. No one in our party became sea sick thankfully but it got very rough during the night. Lots of ship movement. We had a similar experience a few years ago on another January cruise but then the winds were only around 50 mph max. At times last night they exceeded 80.

I believe the Magic is equipped with some sort of stabilizers to help with rough seas and I'm sure that help some with the "ride" we were experiencing. It was interesting getting to experience strong tropical storm/ low end hurricane conditions...one time anyway. All things being equal, I'd prefer to experience them on solid land next time.

[TheProfessor]

I probably would have gotten sea sick, I have trouble if I can even feel the boat bouncing up and down a little.

[DonWrk]

Seems like just the other day we were talking about exciting times coming up for us and now we're almost in no hope mode.

[hriverajr]

Seems like just the other day we were talking about exciting times coming up for us and now we're almost in no hope mode.

I never really bought into that. Fear was always that majority of cold was heading east not south.

[somethingfunny]

I've lived in DFW for 14 years... if it snows, it's almost always in February. Occasionally you get a nice surprise in early December, but otherwise it's going to be February. I don't even waste my time model-watching in January anymore.

[Ntxw]

I've lived in DFW for 14 years... if it snows, it's almost always in February. Occasionally you get a nice surprise in early December, but otherwise it's going to be February. I don't even waste my time model-watching in January anymore.

It snows in March more than it does in January here...strange really

[Brent]

I've lived in DFW for 14 years... if it snows, it's almost always in February. Occasionally you get a nice surprise in early December, but otherwise it's going to be February. I don't even waste my time model-watching in January anymore.

It snows in March more than it does in January here...strange really

Its really strange to me too I'm from alabama and February may be slightly better than January but January had its share of events too *shrugs*

[Ntxw]

Its really strange to me too I'm from alabama and February may be slightly better than January but January had its share of events too *shrugs*

Southeast/gulf best climo is middle to late January. Feb is a little better for the I-20 corridor from Dallas to Atlanta. But in general the southern plains (Texas plains and Oklahoma) blizzards are most frequent in March. OKC NWS has some info on that.

All that though, it would be nice to at least see some snow showers or something in January it just eases the waiting game. The longer we wait we're also fighting the climo/sun game...