In Austin, temperatures have been below freezing since 11 a.m. Saturday and won’t climb above 32 degrees until Monday afternoon—and even then, just barely. The good news: Plenty of sunshine is expected, which could help warm pavement and slowly melt some lingering ice and sleet on area roads.
An extreme cold warning remains in effect through noon Monday. Morning lows will fall into the teens, and with breezy north winds, it will feel like the single digits along the Interstate 35 corridor and below zero in the Hill Country.
“These conditions may cause hypothermia and frostbite if precautions are not taken,” the National Weather Service said in a statement Sunday. “Keep people, pets, plants, and pipes warm, and practice safe use of space heaters.
Despite the sunshine on Monday, don’t expect any change in the frigid air mass over Texas. High temperatures will struggle to rise above freezing in and east of Austin, while areas west of the metro area and into the Hill Country are expected to stay below freezing all day.
Tuesday morning will be a tad colder, thanks to light winds and efficient radiational cooling, which occurs when clear skies allow surface heat to radiate back into the atmosphere, cooling temperatures even further. However, temperatures will steadily climb to above 30 degrees by the afternoon, with highs in the middle and upper 40s.
The rest of the week will be cooler than normal, but a far cry from the arctic weather we’re experiencing right now. However, later this week we could see some more wintry weather.
“A cold front and upper-level trough (of low atmospheric pressure) will move across our area on Friday into next weekend to generate precipitation,” meteorologists at the National Weather Service wrote in their forecast discussion on Sunday. “Forecast soundings from the last several runs have indicated a mix of precipitation types due to a return of colder temperatures.”
Be sure to stay tuned to the forecast in the coming days.
When we woke up Sunday morning, Central Texas looked like a winter wonderland (or wasteland, if you miss the heat), covered in a mix of ice and sleet.
While last week’s forecast leaned toward mostly freezing rain that could’ve led to ice accumulation, temperatures dropped faster and turned colder than forecast models expected on Saturday. That shift to colder air allowed much of the precipitation to change from freezing rain to bouncy ice pellets of sleet, sparing many trees and power lines of ice buildup — and likely preventing widespread power outages.
Overall, wintry totals across the region ranged from about 0.75 to 1.5 inches. Had all of that fallen as freezing rain, the problems would have been far more severe, with thick layers of ice coating everything.
