Plants Are Protected, Yard Is Ready, Heavy Coat Weather This Week

I finished bringing most of my potted plants into my He-Shed this afternoon where they will stay for most of this week.  I'm not worried about a freeze for Monday morning, but it appears Tuesday through Thursday will be below freezing on the North Shore and near freezing south of Lake P.  I've run out of space in my shed and I've decided to leave my bigger pots uncovered for tomorrow.  I'll make the call during the day whether I cover the bigger pots.  Today I also took down my 4 foot Christmas tree that looked terrific this year.

 

Every plant in my shed cannot handle any freezing temps.   The cold front has passed Houston but the freeze line is not to Dallas yet.

With such a sharp temperature drop with this front, some strong storms have developed ahead of it.  SPC has a Tornado Watch for much of our state.

The timing of this line brings it across the North Shore between 7-10 PM reaching the South shore 8-11 PM.  Right now (5 PM), the main severe danger stays north of Lake P. There is a band of heavy snow stretching from the Plains into West Virginia with severe storms down in the warm air sector.

I still believe this will be the coldest air of the season, but it will not cause any pipe issues for the South Shore.  I like the FOX 8 extended as it brings a moderate (24-28) freeze to the North Shore and a light (29-32) freeze, at worst, for the South Shore.

The reason we won't see a hard freeze is the upper flow never dives down to the Gulf coast.

The disturbance in the Plains lifts to the NE leaving us with mainly a west to east upper flow.  That will keep the really bitter temps well north and east of us.  A key for me was to watch the temperatures in Denver & San Antonio.  Right now Denver is around freezing with sunshine.  That's a nice January day for them.  IF San Antonio doesn't drop into the 20s, neither will we.  Finally what about that late week storm next week?

The next energy is approaching the West coast as the Plains storm lifts out.  Here's the GFS model for next Friday morning.  Yes there is a low in the Gulf, but by then the cold air will have retreated and we'll be too warm for snow.   Boo!  But maybe the cold air is slow to leave?

If you want to see snow, head to Kansas City where TWC's Jim Cantore is all bundled up.  KC has nearly a foot of snow from this storm.  You can always dream!  Stay tuned!