The type of snow that fell today is called "graupel." It starts as a snowflake but then aquires a layer of ice crystals as it falls.
Got a little bit of snow today, it was a nice surprise this morning after they said no chance after the initial forecast for the white stuff last week.
Interesting. I've always referred to that as sleet. Learned something new about snow today. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graupel
Damnit. I'm in Atlanta and trying to evacuate back home to Austin. Flight keeps getting pushed back. Stupid winter.
and now many central Texas districts have closed for tomorrow based on a 30% chance of precip. Craziness.
Yeah, UT and the City of Austin are pretty much the only places open tomorrow in Austin. Almost all of the public school districts in the area are closed.
People thought they overreacted the first time. Then they severely underreacted. Now they're overreacting. I thought they had it right the first time. Call for a delay, see how conditions are in the morning, then decide to shut down or not.
Watching the news in Houston this morning was pretty funny. They sent reporters out to Hempstead and Katy hoping they would see some ice, snow, traffic...ANYTHING out of the ordinary. But they kept cutting to the reporter in Hempstead who kept saying something to the effect of "well, traffic is moving smoothly, there is no ice on the roads and nothing falling from the sky.....BUT IF THAT CHANGES....we will report it. Back to you, Owen." "Okay, good story, thanks." LOL
Well, traffic moving smoothly is out of the ordinary. These "snow days" have really cut down my time commuting to work.
Absolutely. That worked yesterday. Why couldn't that have worked today? Nothing...absolutely no precipitation has fallen anywhere near Round Rock. They're looking like fools, again. Excellent because I'll be driving through Hempstead later on my way to my parents in The Woodlands (man, I can't wait until the Grand Parkway is open). Get to leave earlier since the kids aren't in school.
So tomorrow looks like a "tough ****. It's cold outside with no chance of snow/sleet/graupel but it's gonna rain."
Yeah.. The NWS sure is moving the advisories further south every update. The models have busted by a good 5-8 degrees for everyone so far. No models show any freezing precip for us, but I would wait until tomorrow morning to say it is impossible.
Freezing rain advisory issued for areas north of metro Houston. Let's see if this trends further southward as the night progresses.
Ugh, this layer of ice on my truck is going to suck in the morning. It's already layered on like coarse sandpaper.
So far, this has been Houston's 7th coldest Winter in history. Which I am sure is pretty obvious for most of us, but is pretty amazing given the only other year in this millennium is 2001. Here is a chart of 70+ degree days this winter compared to last year.
Just read an article on nytimes.com about how theres not enough snow this year. Not even paraphtasing, thats the literal title of the article. Managed to read the entire thing without snickering
