March 6, 2008 Snow

Wednesday Night

Thursday

Watching Harvey

Showers and thunderstorms are likely to continue in the overnight hours across North and Central Texas, with highest rain chances along and west of I-35 near the location of a weak low pressure. Heavy rain and minor flooding is possible as the storms that do develop will be slow moving.

Tropical Depression Harvey continues to develop near the Yucatan Peninsula and Bay Of Campeche. Harvey is expected to strengthen into a tropical storm by Thursday morning and possibly a hurricane just before landfall some where on the Coastal Bend Friday Night or Saturday Morning. The eventual track and intensity remains uncertain due to slow steering currents and an upper level high expected across the Southern Rockies and High Plains. At this time, it appears it will meander across South-Central and Southeast Texas this weekend, where very heavy to torrential rainfall will occur and produce possible widespread flooding. The heaviest rainfall at this time is expected to remain just south of our area, but will be monitored closely through the end of the week. Continue to closely monitor forecasts over the coming days, especially those across South-Central and Southeast Texas for changes in track and rainfall amounts.

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Heavy Snow Event

March 6, 2008

On 6 March 2008, a convective precipitation band formed across North Texas and quickly transitioned from rain to snow in a 60 km wide zone extending from west of the Dallas / Fort Worth metroplex northeast into extreme North Texas near the Red River. The snow persisted for over three hours with accumulations averaging 7 cm and isolated reports up to 30 cm near the heaviest convective precipitation. Frontogenesis and the resulting ageostrophic circulation appeared to play key roles in not only providing significant forcing for ascent but also in modifying the vertical temperature profile to be supportive of a liquid-to-frozen precipitation transition. The presence of atmospheric instability led to isolated thunderstorm development, with occasional cloud-to-ground and in-cloud lightning observed in the band of heavy snow. This study reviews the complex interactions between moisture, instability, and forcing for ascent that occurred during this convective winter weather event.

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NWS Ft. Worth Research Webpage