Let It Snow!...And Storm!

I hope you'll pardon me; I'm still getting over the Texans' disappointing loss to the Vikings today!  I thought the weather might cheer me up, but even that didn't do the trick.  Perusing the weather maps, I see same wet outlook for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day that I've been blogging about since last week. 

If you were out and about shopping today, you probably noticed how mild and balmy it was as temperatures climbed into the mid 70s, ten degrees higher than normal.  A weak cool front is moving in overnight, but it will stall along the coast and then move northward as a warm front Monday.  Then things get really interesting.

An upper-level disturbance coming out of west Texas will help lift the warm front across Southeast Texas.  That will lead to several periods of rain and stronger storms by Monday night going into Tuesday morning.  Cold air descending out of the Central Plains could mean snow for parts of North Texas by Tuesday.

Here's the outlook as depicted by the National Weather Service for Monday, Christmas Eve:

 

 

By Christmas Day, the snow in the Rockies envelopes more of the middle of the country:

 

 

 

 

TONIGHT: Cloudy with periods of light rain. Mild with temperatures holding in the low to mid 60s. Southwest winds becoming briefly north by morning 10-15 mph.

 

MONDAY'S NORMAN NUMBER: 6

 

MONDAY, CHRISTMAS EVE: Low clouds and fog, some patchy light rain. Skies remain cloudy for the remainder of the day. Highs in the low 70s. North winds early become southeast by afternoon 5-10 mph.

 

TUESDAY'S NORMAN NUMBER: 5

 

TUESDAY, CHRISTMAS DAY: Strong to severe storms developing in the early morning, lasting through early afternoon. Some storms may contain damaging wind gusts and there could be brief isolated tornadoes. Skies slowly clear by late afternoon as gusty northwest winds arrive  blowing at 15-20 mph.  Temperatures in the low 70s early drop into the 50s by afternoon.

Gene Norman
Follow @genenormanwx