Washington and Oregon are in a drought. The jet stream that usually slams moist Pacific lows into the NW is flowing north and then dropping down into the Midwest, bringing the arctic air and giving those guys a miserable winter. This has been the pattern the last two winters and is freaking a lot of folks out. A number of models suggests this pattern could become more normal than not in the coming years. February has been mostly sunny and dry with unseasonably warm temps across the NW. We've even had a few days in the 70s. We will pay for it this summer though.
One downside to the warm weather we've been having the past month is that many of the fruit trees in the Hill Country are already blooming. If this weather shows up Sunday/Monday like they say it is, you can kiss a good portion of the Stonewall/Fredricksburg peach crop goodbye. Same thing happened last year, but it wasn't a freeze, we had a crazy front blow in and the 40mph winds just blew all the blooms off the trees. I was out at the garden yesterday, all the peaches are blooming, the plums are getting ready to, though the apricots are holding out (but you never know if they'll produce regardless, 1 year out of 4 kinda deal). Wish me luck. I want some damn fruit this year, I'm down to 2 jars of preserves and I have enough peaches in the freezer for only a cobbler or 2.
Dallas is about to get 1.5-2 inches of sleet accumulation in the next two days. I couldn't have happened to a better place.
They are also going to get 1-3" of snow Tuesday night into Wednesday. Houston is just a tad to warm for any frozen precipitation. You may see a few sleet pellets mixed with some light rain but it appears we will miss out once again. There is always the slight chance of a surprise but the dew points are above freezing right now (35 degrees or so) so the likely hood of any wet bulbing occurring is really low. There is also a warm layer of air aloft (around 5000 feet) that would prevent snow from falling. IF, and that is a big IF, the temp drops enough we might see a thin layer of ice on some mailboxes or patio furniture for counties north of I-10. Don't count on it though. If the warm nose wasn't there in the upper atmosphere it likely would have been snowing today. That would then bring the surface temps down to freezing and we could have had a repeat of February 2010. Only a trace was measured at IAH but some areas especially the south side had close to an inch or a little over an inch.
Winter just will not go away. Be prepared for some really cold temperatures starting tomorrow afternoon through Friday. It will again be a close call as far as winter precipitation for the greater Houston area. Northern Counties will likely see freezing rain/sleet. It will just depend on where the freezing line sets up to see where the changeover from rain to winter precip occurs. It will be more defined as the day progresses.
I was just talking to someone about this last night. Minnesota has had a pretty weird winter and the Jet Stream has been fluctuating through Minnesota right around the Twin cities. We had a cold November, very warm December and January, and a cold February. It is snowing here on March 3rd but otherwise we've had fairly little snow accumulation.
Yep. Last 3 inch snowfall was January 8. I don't think the south suburbs will get to 3 inches in today's snowfall. Supposed to be 50+ next Wednesday and Thursday, then I suspect down to 15 in time for The Get Lucky half marathon on the 14th.
My band plays an outdoor gig in St. Paul at the end of the St. Patrick's day parade on the 17th. I'm not going to predict what the temp might be that day. It could be anything from when it reached 80 on St. Pat's three years ago or it when it was in the 20's last year.
It went from muggy and humid 70 degrees at 2pm to cold as **** and windy at 4:30pm. And the roads will freeze over soon.
Funny thing is Austin may not reach freezing. It's going to be close. Oh well, UT already canceled until 2:00, so I don't care.
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