Winter Storm Warning for DFW Metroplex

Gene Rhoden

While I sit in the PWH (proverbial weather hole) here in Norman, a winter storm warning has been issued for all of the DFW Metroplex ...looks like 3 to 4 inch snows will be common with some heavier amounts...perhaps greater than half a foot in some spots. Looking at latest water vapor loop ....what an impressive bowling ball approaching ...too bad we don't have better moisture present! May still have a little thundersnow given strength of cold-core though.

..Gene..
 
I haven't been keeping up too much on it but I am surprised to see that the convection near the cold core is in much better shape than the stuff associated with the exit region near DRT-JCT-ABI-SPS-OUN.

Judging by the appearance of the MAF sounding and radar echo tops it appears most of the cold core stuff is occurring in an unstable layer between 750 and 550 mb. Pretty stout "CAPE robber" above 600 mb to temper out the punch. Seeing that the 500 mb cold core is still hung back pretty far into NM it certainly looks good for continued development.

Looking at the soundings my guess is that the 850 mb theta-e is the ideal product to see what the cold core low might be able to tap. In fact I think (Te850 - T600) would paint out the convective area nicely. The closest I found is the Showalter plots at Unisys, but these panels don't look any good since SSI uses T500, and that's up in the warmer CAPE robber air. If I wasn't so lazy I'd drag out PCGRIDDS and do a macro for it.

Tim
 
My wife and I had a fun "winter storm chase" down into north Texas on Friday night/Saturday. After watching a very compact and intense cold-core make a bee-line for the DFW area on Friday, we decided to make a little trip of it to witness this little storm and headed for my hometown of Richardson. We awoke Saturday morning to find a nice crystalline winter wonderland of snow and had fun enjoying walking in some of the rather strong deformation snow bands that were traversing across the city. It appeared that the snowfall rates were approaching 2 inches per hour in the most intense mesoscale bands with even a little thunder reported earlier in the morning. I measured 5.5 inches during the last snow burst ...after that the snow began to melt/compact a little. We drove back to the boring weather hole that is Norman on Saturday afternoon and through some of the wrap around snow that was related to the main deformation zone north of the vort-max center. What fun ....the snow was perfect and clung to all the trees making it a post-card perfect day. We even saw a snowman dressed up as Janet Jackson!!! :shock: ...but no snow cats. The most snowfall that was reported with this storm was 8 inches along several areas near the Red River. Now I've had my little taste of winter and it's on to spring!!! .....but it looks as though another interesting system may be looming for the next Friday time frame ....we'll see.

..Gene..
 
Sounds like you had a great winter chase. Was almost waiting for the story about what it was like in the Vermont-like climate of the Arbuckles.

Here in Austin I slept through most of it, but curiously when I woke at 8 am Saturday morning it sounded like a torrential rainstorm was coming down on the roof. I looked outside and saw bright sunshine and wet snow melting by the ton off the live oak & crepe myrtles that populate our neighborhood. Pretty surreal. My brother-in-law on the SW side of Austin said there was plenty to make snowballs, and it was the most he'd ever seen here in the past ten years. According to my wx station we never even dropped below 32.

Tim
 
Yes, the snowfall was wonderful. We had three inches in Flower Mound located on the northwest edge of the DFW area. I awoke first light Saturday morning and headed out to photograph the snow covered trees. It was a wet snow -clinging to all the branches -perfect for building snowmen. The flakes were large and clumped together. My cats did not like it though and preferred the indoors for some reason. They had this reaction: :evil:

I'll take one day of winter per year thank you. Glad to see that all the snow has melted today. Now let's get on with spring. The next system seems about 12 hours out-of-phase romping through late Thursday. I have to teach a class on Thursday in San Antonio, so I will be unable to chase. TM
 
Hi Tim, glad to hear you got some snow this year. Is it unusual to get snow where you are? Have to ask, what do you mean by
The next system seems about 12 hours out-of-phase
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, do you mean an out of season storm?
 
I measured 6.2" at my apartment in Lewisville near the end of the storm. Thankfully, I woke up at 7:00 AM while the storm was still ongoing (and the snow remained unmolested), so I was able to take a walk, enjoy it, and shoot some photos. Eventually, I hopped in the Jeep and drove down to Coppell looking for more photo opportunities - just in time for the last heavy burst of the event.

Having lived in the DFW area since 1982, I can't remember experiencing a heavier snowfall. And it was definitely the most picturesque snow event I've seen down here...the way it clung to the trees was perfect.

Some photos here: http://www.jefflawson.net/image/snow/

Anyway, I'm happy now. Time for Spring...not necessarily for storms, but simply for warmer weather. I just haven't been able to handle the cold well this year.
 
We even saw a snowman dressed up as Janet Jackson!!! ...but no snow cats.
Click to expand...

Yeah cause I wasn't there!!!!! :lol: :lol: :lol:

Unbelievable. So many places on the southern Plains have had measureable snow this year...Midwest City, Moore, the northwest part of Norman, Pauls Valley, Ardmore, Dallas, Austin....but here on the southeast side of Norman we still haven't had enough snow to measure this winter. I was amazed how much fell as far south as Austin - my chase partner had about 2 inches at his place! The way this winter has gone I wouldn't be surprised if my mom in California called me up and said, "JEFFY!!! JEFFY!!! WE HAVE AN INCH OF SNOW ON THE GROUND!!!!!" :shock:
 
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