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It's been an incredibly mild winter so far. Except for a very low-20s (F) dip in early Deceember (much earlier than we usually get what passes for Serious Cold), this winter has been mild. More than a few days have been in the 60s, and several in the 70s in the last 30 days. That doesn't mean it still isn't winter. And a hallmark of Texas winter is Sudden Change.*
This morning is probably the most striking example of a winter Sudden Change that I've documented. See the red circles:
In the hour from 7 AM to 8 AM, the temperature dropped 16 degrees. Sixteen!!!
I've seen 20-30 degree temperature drops in the course of a morning, or an afternoon, or whenever a front hits. That's spectacular enough, and leaves an unwary person in the position of going to work in comfortable shirt sleeves, and freezing on the way to the car in the evening. But 16 degrees in one hour is as sudden a drop as I've ever seen. You can see from the blue circle that the wind had already shifted to the northwest, so the front had started coming in. The weather station just happened to catch the temperature extremes in its hourly recordings.
The front isn't even that strong. We've stayed steady at 43° for several hours since then, and aren't supposed to get much below 30° tonight. It's just the speed that it came in with.
Never a dull moment!
* For once Wikipedia continues to fail me, but I do have another link. An apparently Texas term for a very strong, very fast-moving cold front is "Blue Norther." Just as with this morning. Sometimes it is visible as a low, very dense line of blue-gray-black clouds approaching from the north-northwest. These are the fronts that bring dramatic 20-60° temperature drops in 24 hours. They often seem to come when the weather's been warm; and since both warm and winter-like weather can happen anywhere from October to April, it's easy to be caught by surprise. In North Texas it's not usually severe, but I understand that in the Panhandle these fronts used to be (maybe still are) dreaded by ranchers. They can bring very heavy snow, and combined with the wind, can lead to the the deaths of many cattle.
This is the closest picture I found in a fast interwebs survey to what I have seen and term "blue norther" clouds, although it doesn't actually show the leading edge - IMHO the most striking part. It does show some of the blue color.
This morning is probably the most striking example of a winter Sudden Change that I've documented. See the red circles:
In the hour from 7 AM to 8 AM, the temperature dropped 16 degrees. Sixteen!!!
I've seen 20-30 degree temperature drops in the course of a morning, or an afternoon, or whenever a front hits. That's spectacular enough, and leaves an unwary person in the position of going to work in comfortable shirt sleeves, and freezing on the way to the car in the evening. But 16 degrees in one hour is as sudden a drop as I've ever seen. You can see from the blue circle that the wind had already shifted to the northwest, so the front had started coming in. The weather station just happened to catch the temperature extremes in its hourly recordings.
The front isn't even that strong. We've stayed steady at 43° for several hours since then, and aren't supposed to get much below 30° tonight. It's just the speed that it came in with.
Never a dull moment!
* For once Wikipedia continues to fail me, but I do have another link. An apparently Texas term for a very strong, very fast-moving cold front is "Blue Norther." Just as with this morning. Sometimes it is visible as a low, very dense line of blue-gray-black clouds approaching from the north-northwest. These are the fronts that bring dramatic 20-60° temperature drops in 24 hours. They often seem to come when the weather's been warm; and since both warm and winter-like weather can happen anywhere from October to April, it's easy to be caught by surprise. In North Texas it's not usually severe, but I understand that in the Panhandle these fronts used to be (maybe still are) dreaded by ranchers. They can bring very heavy snow, and combined with the wind, can lead to the the deaths of many cattle.
This is the closest picture I found in a fast interwebs survey to what I have seen and term "blue norther" clouds, although it doesn't actually show the leading edge - IMHO the most striking part. It does show some of the blue color.
