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Heavy Rainfall and Flooding Concerns in the Southwest; Coastal Low to Impact the East Coast

Deep tropical moisture will lead to widespread showers and thunderstorms capable of producing flash flooding through early next week over the Southwest and Four Corners. A coastal storm is expected to develop off the southeast U.S. coast tonight and is expected to strengthen and bring flooding, dangerous rip currents, gusty winds and heavy rain up much of the East Coast through early next week. Read More >

 

Snow covered barn in Wise County.

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.

Download Paper Here 

 

NWS Ft. Worth Research Webpage

Satellite Image Taken the Morning After the Heavy Snow