Dangerous Heat over the South-Central and Southwest U.S. Through Next Week

Dangerous heat persists across the Desert Southwest through this weekend and across the Southern Plains and Lower Mississippi Valley through at least the middle of next week. Numerous daily record high temperatures are expected through at least Tuesday for much of Texas and Oklahoma as well as portions of Louisiana, New Mexico, and Arizona. Read More >

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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Dangerous Heat over the South-Central and Southwest U.S. Through Next Week

March 6, 2008 Snow