Warming Up This Weekend...Then Here Come the Storms

CHILLY START TO FRIDAY

Temperatures dropped Friday morning to their lowest since March 6 here in North Texas.  The official low temperature at DFW Airport was 34°, just escaping a freeze.  The record low for this date is 25° set in 1991, so it can be even colder than what we saw this morning.  Here are some of the other low temperatures around the area from early Friday morning.

We did have hard freezes in places like FW Alliance, Denton, Mineral Wells, Burleson and Stephenville.  I would say that roughly 60% of North Texas saw a killing freeze, ending the growing season.

WEEKEND WARM-UP

Temperatures will be chilly again tonight, but stay above freezing area-wide.  Look for more humidity as the weekend goes on...and much more cloud cover Sunday ahead of our next storm system.  We will also see a few spotty showers during the day Sunday, but not enough to trigger a washout of any of your outdoor activities.

It is a big and busy weekend at TMS for the different races Friday night, Saturday and Sunday.  Thousands of fans will be braving the traffic, but thankfully not the weather.  The only possible exception would be Sunday if a shower happens to move over the race track...but the chances of that are only 20%.

CHANCE OF RAIN INCREASING EARLY NEXT WEEK

A potent trough of low pressure and accompanying disturbance will rotate out of the Desert Southwest and into the Southern Plains by Monday & Tuesday of next week.  The heart of this system will by northwest of North Texas on Monday and those areas closer to Wichita Falls to Oklahoma City will have the best chance of storms Monday.  A strong cold front will remain to our west until Tuesday.  The front should sweep through Tuesday morning, giving us the best chance of rain then.  Rain and storms should end from west to east by Tuesday afternoon.

There is a chance of severe weather with this system, as dynamic as it appears to be.  As often the case, our severe weather chances are conditional on time of day and best upward forcing in the atmosphere.  If most of the storms arrive Tuesday morning, our severe storm chances diminish thankfully.  We do anticipate some heavier storms and possible strong winds...so we will be on the lookout early next week.