Some Cold Weather Ahead
We are counting down to December (5 days away) and the start of meteorological winter.
We got an idea of its chilly nature Saturday as strong northwest winds delivered a big blow of cold air. We started in the morning around 60 degrees with some rain; by afternoon temperatures had fallen all the way to the upper 40s with wind gusts around 40 miles-per-hour.
There were reports of wind gusts hitting for a moment at around 50 mph in Graham and at DFW. This was the first afternoon in the 40s since early in the year – a full 289 days ago to be exact – as wind chills got down in the 30s briefly.
We did get some rain overnight and Saturday morning, by far the heaviest amounts were reported east of Dallas. Amounts around .50" were reported from Mesquite over to Sulphur Springs. At DFW a mere .06" of rain fell, not very generous in the worst one-year-drought in Texas history.
COLD WINDS TONIGHT, COLD TOMORROW
The winter coat and a couple of layers were needed Saturday night. Temperatures will fall through the 40s down to just above freezing (in the metro area at least) by Sunday morning. Winds Sunday morning will be around 20 mph so wind chills will be down in the low 20s. Oh that's cold!
We'll have lots of sunshine Sunday; the winds will lose their gusty nature by the afternoon. Highs only peak in the low 50s, so Sunday is destined to be the coldest day of season so far.
HARD FREEZE MONDAY MORNING
The winds slow down, the skies are clear and temperatures are going to really drop by Monday morning.
We are forecasting the first freeze at Dallas–Fort Worth International Airport for the season, low should get down to around 30 degrees. The outlying areas will suffer a hard freeze. Before you consider heroic measures to stretch the growing season a bit longer, be advised that this coming Wednesday morning we expect another freeze.
Without brisk north winds, the sun should warm us up to the upper 50s by Monday afternoon.
COLD AND DRY THE THEME THIS COMING WEEK
There is no more rain in the forecast for the rest of the month, we'll end November with a mere .86" of rain for the entire month, about 2.5" short of normal for the month and almost a foot of rain short for the year.
Lots of sunshine but lots of north wind this coming week will keep us with below-normal temperatures. Highs on Tuesday and Wednesday stay in the 50s (again as mentioned above, the lows will get below freezing Wednesday morning).
Highs on Thursday could hit 60 degrees to start December but we'll be right back to 50s for highs on Friday and Saturday. We'll include a slight chance of rain for Saturday.
