Winter’s Bitter Chill..

It’s been too long since I’ve posted…it’s time to get back in the swing, especially given this crazy winter weather we’ve been having. I guess I couldn’t have picked a better time to release the second book in the Katie series called Katie and the Magic Umbrella:On Snowflake Trail. It teaches kids about blizzards, how snow, sleet, and freezing rain are made. It also teaches cold weather safety, important stuff to know this time of year.

Since late November we’ve had more than our share of cold weather and a Christmas Eve blizzard to boot! Don’t know about you, but I’m really missing those occasional winter days in North Texas when we can see sun and highs in the 60′s and 70′s. Looking back at December, I noticed that we had 19 of 31 days where our high didn’t make it above 50 degrees. We also had 15 official freezes in December. The average is 10.  Of course the day I remember fondly was Dec 23rd..when DFW hit 75 degrees!  What a day that was! The next day…a blizzard that we’ll remember for years to come.

I think many Americans are probably questioning the validity of “Global Warming”, and they should be, given that we are experiencing one the coldest winters in many years with new studies showing that global temperatures last decade actually cooled. (This is a topic for another day )

I digress….

Tonight we are expecting another blast from the arctic that should be taken seriously. The front will arrive between 11pm and 2am Thursday morning…winds will shift abruptly to the north and howl all day Thursday and Thursday night, finally calming down late Friday. Wintery precip is possible, mainly in the form of freezing light rain or drizzle between 3am and 10am Thursday, then any lift for precip will shift east and as the cold, dry arctic air settles in. Once this happens, dew points will drop so drastically that I expect the clouds to start clearing out as early as Thursday evening and Thursday night.

The weather pattern that brings this kind of cold is called the McFarland Signature where a strong high pressure ridge at 500mb develops over Alaska and the northern Pacific creating a huge buckle (trough) that sends the bitter cold diving straight south into the central and eastern U.S.

While the cold will last about 3-4 days, it will be severe enough that if you don’t prepare your home and pets and businesses, you could be in for a wet, expensive mess. Pipe breaks and property damage will no doubt be in the news the next several days because people didn’t drip faucets or winterize their pipes and outdoor faucets properly. Temperatures will be dropping during the day Thursday and leading to our 2 coldest mornings..Friday and Saturday when temperatures will likely drop to between 8-12 degrees in some of our northern burbs, to 12-15 for our metro areas. Saturday morning should be the coldest with clear skies and the lightest winds. As new model runs come in we’ll know better whether we’re underestimating how cold it will truly get.

Fortunately, by Saturday and Sunday our highs will gradually climb above freezing again. Highs will be back into the 40′s by Sunday.

Looking ahead…our long-range models are showing signs that another big storm will develop over Texas that could spell trouble (more snow?) for North Texas by Friday of next week. Stay tuned!