Weekend To Start Off Stormy & Cold
FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - Rainy days and Mondays? Not exactly – more like cloudy Fridays. The clouds will stick with us for the rest of Friday, but the cloud deck is perforated enough to allow some peeks of sunshine and mild temperatures in the mid-70s throughout the last day of the work week.
There are rainy days in the forecast though.
An arctic cold front is still on track for a late Friday evening or post-midnight passage through North Texas. The front, along with an upper level disturbance, will trigger some isolated showers with a few spot storms, mainly to the northeast of DFW. At this point, the main storm event looks to be in Arkansas, with a handful of the northeastern sections of North Texas being on the tip of the storm iceberg.
There are two timeframes to keep in mind. First, the rain window – from 9:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m. – is when the isolated showers are possible. Second, the storm window – from 11:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. – is when storms are possible, mainly to the northeast of the DFW Metro area. Basically, we are capable of seeing showers starting in the evening hours and extending until after the front moves away.
Storms will fire off directly along, or slightly behind, the front as it presses southeastward during the storm window. Gusty winds will likely be the only local effect from these spot storms, with a small possibility of the storms becoming severe and producing 60 mph winds and nickel-sized hail.
But the Friday night storms are not the main event in our weekend weather program. It's just a warm-up.
The headlining act is a big temperature crash on Saturday morning. Temperatures will quickly tumble into the 40s – with wind chill factors in the upper 20s -- during the pre-dawn hours. And northwest winds will be gusting into the 30 or 40 mph range.
As skies clear on Saturday night, and the winds become much lighter, we will set the stage for another cold morning in North Texas on Sunday. Temperatures should dip to near 34 degrees in DFW Metro areas, with places along the Red River – including Denton and McKinney – falling below the freezing mark.
So, bring the plants and pets inside, and drip your faucets before you head to bed on Saturday night. But, it looks like this will be the last freeze of the season. That said, there is another shot of cold air slated for Ash Wednesday. We should stay above 32 degrees, but not by much. Temperatures in the middle of next week will, at times, dip to the mid-to-upper 30s.
