Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Update on South Texas Ice Potential for Wednesday

An arctic cold front was blasting south through Kansas into northern Oklahoma at midday.  This front and an upper level storm system gathering over the Rockies will continue to spread south and east overnight, reaching the I-35 corridor from Austin to San Antonio by rush hour tomorrow morning. 


Light rain will break-out ahead of the cold front and storm system overnight tonight, and will mix with and change to freezing rain and/or sleet during the morning hours Wednesday, as temperatures continue to fall.


Below is the latest map showing the probability of accumulating ice from the HPC.  This is valid 6am CST Wednesday through 6am CST Thursday:



This system will be moving fairly quickly.  At this time it appears that most of the measurable precipitation along the I-35 corridor will take place between 6am and 12 Noon, while the Houston area will receive most of its measurable precipitation between 10am and 4pm.

It will also be very, very windy across the region on Wednesday.  North to Northeast winds will be steady at 20-30 mph, with gusts up to 45 mph possible behind the cold front.  This will also drive wind chill values into the zero to 10 above range by afternoon in many areas.

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