Flurries As We Enter Christmas Weekend?
The weather pattern is staying very active during the next week. We've seen a wet December with temperatures on the cool side overall. The chilly temps will stay with us through Christmas Day.
We do have a chance of rain starting on Thursday as an upper air disturbance passes overhead. Most of the energy with this system will pass to our south and east. We're forecasting a slight chance of showers Thursday morning, mainly DFW south and east. The rain will be heaviest in SE Texas and Louisiana.
By Thursday afternoon, the disturbance will move quickly to the east, taking the rain chances with it. We'll actually see a decent amount of sunshine by Thursday afternoon and temperatures should be milder...near 60°!!
Another cold front will drop into North Texas Thursday night into Friday morning. This will bring with it a lot of clouds and chilly north winds. Expect temperatures to struggle to get into the 40s during the day on Friday...with even cold temperatures west of I-35W. There will be enough upper level energy moving in from the west for a chance of light rain or sprinkles along the I-35 corridor...but that could change to light snow or flurries in our far western counties during the day Friday.
At this point I'm not expecting snow accumulating more than lightly in our western areas, possible on grassy areas or car tops. By Friday night, the light snow will move into our northern counties, with heavier snow in Oklahoma. Obviously temperatures will be key...and if the system digs farther south and slows down, we could have snow over a larger area on North Texas and it could be heavier locally. We'll be watching.
There is one computer model that came out today with just a slower-moving and colder system that would produce heavier rain/snow over North Texas on Saturday! This is the first time this model (usually quite reliable) has shown this scenario. You can see the heavier precipitation over North Texas in the graphic below for Saturday afternoon, which of course is Christmas Eve.
At this point, we'd like to see more consistency in this scenario before we buy into a White Christmas Eve. It does look like skies will clear Saturday night regardless...leaving us with sunshine Christmas Day. We'll keep you posted.
