White Christmas May Be Blowing Our Way
FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - Mother Nature is trying to bring a White Christmas to North Texas and is doing so with a potent storm system that will be a lot of bark with a little bite. And the bark won't be the snow! It will be the wind. And it will be our evidence that a very strong upper level system is traversing the Southern Plain on Christmas Day. Of course the snow will pique everyone's interest more so than the wind because as my grandfather once said "I can still drive in the wind". So let's talk snow first.
The snow window will be from 2 PM – 7 PM. The storm track still looks to be in Oklahoma and this will put the impressive snow fall totals there especially just east of Oklahoma City stretching into Arkansas. A 4-7 inch swath is expected with higher amounts possible where the best convergence of moisture and atmospheric dynamics come together. 3-5 inches for Oklahoma City down toward the Red River are likely with generally 2 inch amounts along the Red River.
For the Metroplex, generally a dusting to 1 inch is expected. A big reason for this is the warm ground coupled with temperatures at the surface remaining above the freezing mark through the snow window and not dropping below freezing until after the snow has come to a close. Because the winds will be very strong, roadways are expected to dry out quickly and travel issues for Wednesday morning are not anticipated for the Metroplex. However, for snowfall recipients from Denton, McKinney and Greenville northward, there will be travel issues through Christmas night and into Wednesday morning.
Now to the wind. Our CBS 11 Storm Team weather model shows winds gusting 30-40 mph from the north starting after the noon hour on Christmas Day. This will be in response the strengthening low pressure system I have plotted on the by 6 PM Christmas Day over Shreveport, LA. Winds this strong will likely warrant a Wind Advisory from our National Weather Service and it will likely cover all of North Texas. While the snow may upstage the strong winds for many North Texans, the windy part of our weather equation will certainly have wider influence.
