Cold, windy weekend with freezing rain possible Sunday evening
NORTH TEXAS - A weather alert is issued for Sunday night. This is a very difficult forecast where a couple of degrees make all the difference. Below is the current thinking as of Saturday night. Please keep checking in for updates, a little ice goes a long way to making our lives very difficult.
We believe the threat of ice on bridges and overpasses is along Hwy 380 (in pink) and north for Sunday night.
While there is a small threat of ice reaching further south, there is a much greater chance of road impacts along our northern tier of counties.
While residents south of the Hwy 380 line will likely see some sleet with that rain, road impacts are likely confined to the north where it'll be freezing or below long enough for some of the freezing rain to stick, especially to the bridges and overpasses.
For freezing rain, you need the surface to be at freezing. The actual temperature could be at freezing but it takes some time at freezing or below to get the surface to freezing. It takes only a few hours for bridges and about twice as long usually for roads.
How long it is freezing is also a factor here. It'll get above freezing during the day Sunday and then temperatures will drop in the evening. Here is the forecast freezing line (in pink, 31°-32°) at 10:30 p.m. Sunday. This is where ice is possible.
Along and south of Hwy 380, I'm expecting sleet/rain that becomes all rain late in the night and goes on as rain for the rest of the event. As I said, this is a forecast where just two degrees make a big difference.
It'll be a cold day Sunday with enough wind to make it uncomfortable.
Rain chances don't show up to late in the day and most of this will be light. But it'll also cool the temperatures down as it starts. Watch how close it gets to freezing in the metroplex forecast. Also, notice as the night wears on it actually warms up! Overnight we are expecting a 90% rain chances.
So the window for ice is just too short for the metroplex and about one degree too warm. Too close not to be concerned, so there is a weather alert for Sunday night.
The rain that shows up Sunday night is not the only rain in the forecast ahead.
We are going to get into a wet and warm start of the week as highs get into the low 60s with very high rain chances and forecasted amounts over most of the week. Monday morning's commute looks very wet.
The rain should start to let up by the evening commute.
There is not much rain around for the morning commute on Tuesday, but plenty around for the afternoon/evening.
Rain chances stay high for Wednesday as well. But don't worry about ice or severe weather, we are more concerned about flash flooding. Some of our eastern counties could get 2"-4" of rain.
Up to Saturday, DFW has logged the 18th coldest start to January on record and the coldest start since 1988. That's 36 years ago. But the weather pattern is going to flip. There is even a slight chance we spend the last 10 days of January with above-normal temperatures. Here is your 7-day forecast:
