I think my alaskan malamute would beg to differ about the 'pets' part. Anything below 40 she refuses to come in. Takes alot of convincing.
I just flew back to LA from Houston for the winter break. I do not miss the weather in Houston. Good luck y'all
Just going to put this here. This is the Miami, FL NWS forecast discussion. This is one heck of a cold snap. To put it bluntly...the weather across South Florida from Friday night through early Sunday morning should be miserable...as models continue to indicate an active subtropical jet resulting in widespread cloud cover and shower activity...with cold and blustery conditions at the surface...as a siberian surface high drops southward across the Central Plains. There is the potential for high temperatures on Saturday to be significantly cooler than even mex guidance suggests...and may not make it out of the 40s in some areas. Although uncertainty precludes adding mixed precipitation to the forecast at this time...there is also a remote chance that some sleet or ice pellets may mix with rain in the Lake Okeechobee area on Saturday/Saturday night. Regardless... a very cold air mass will continue to spread across the area on Saturday night...with rain chances and cloud cover gradually diminishing from north to south. There is an elevated potential for freezing temperatures on Saturday night...but this will be dependent on how quickly clouds depart. The GFS/European model (ecmwf) agree that a secondary middle-level vorticity maximum moving around base of deep upper trough over eastern North America will move across the peninsula on Sunday...and induce surface cyclogenesis over the Atlantic waters east of the peninsula. This will allow brisk northwest winds to increase even further...with cold temperatures expected through the day on Sunday...and an even higher freeze potential on Sunday night/Monday morning. A gradual warming trend is still expected from Monday-Wednesday.
No, because the earth's axis still tilts towards and away from the sun at different times of the year. I'm sure there are other reasons it gets cold in the winter, but that's the most obvious one I can think of.
SE TX discussion: Friday: Models continue to show a disturbance moving across the region. Air mass is forecast to be very dry at the surface with dewpoints falling into the single digits. Models are not showing much if any QPF over the region as moisture is based in the mid levels with anything falling evaporating prior to reaching the surface. However, a look at water vapor images shows an impressive plume of moisture pulling NE from Baja this morning and the fact that the models were too dry this morning does perk my interest. Within such arctic cold domes it does not take much moisture to produce precipitation. For now will continue a cloudy but dry forecast for Friday with temperatures holding near freezing all day. Will watch guidance closely for any signs of better moisture with this system and water vapor/obs for similar indications. Forecast soundings are completely frozen after midnight this evening so anything that falls and reaches the ground on Friday would be snow. Weekend: Skies clear Friday evening as massive 1050mb arctic high noses into TX. Winds will weaken and with very low dewpoints widespread teens can be expect both Saturday and Sunday mornings (see lows below). Many locations along and N of I-10 will remain at or below freezing from this evening through midday Sunday or roughly for about 60 hours. Will likely see another freeze Monday morning as the arctic high only slowly gives ground…feel models will be too fast in modifying this air mass given how dry it will be and how large the arctic high is and this may cause some issues as the next system approaches early next week. Preparations: Final preparations for this extended cold event should be completed this morning. Remember that anything wet will be frozen by tomorrow morning, so make sure the sprinkler systems are shut off to prevent ice development on surface streets and sidewalks. It is possible that many subdivision “lakes” will develop a layer of ice especially in areas where the surface temperatures does not rise above freezing until Saturday or Sunday along with many cattle stock ponds
