The first freeze of the season was November 22 which was the average first freeze date for North Texas. The weather that followed can be attributed to a strong, maybe the strongest on record, El Nino. {{more}}cool and wet …
The three-month outlook released earlier last month by the Climate
Prediction Center shows a wetter than normal winter with cooler than normal temperatures.
Still, given that forecast for a wet winter, no one could have predicted the deluge of rain this month that has broke all records for the wettest November on record at 8.03 inches or that already, before the year is out, has made 2015 the wettest year on record at 58.78 and climbing. It seems hard to believe that the two year combined total for the drought years of 2013 and 2014 falls 8 inches below 2015.
snow storms in the forecast?
?It?s still unclear if we?ll have a snowier winter but the law of averages would tend to have you think it?s bound to happen with some of these storms,? said Tom Bradshaw, meteorologist in charge for the National Weather Service office in Fort Worth told the Fort Worth Star Telegram.
Bradshaw said storm tracks that typically happen during El Nino winters can prevent Arctic air from plunging south so ?we don?t quite have as much confidence? about how many outbreaks North Texas will see this winter.
The fact is that the snowiest winters on the Dallas-Fort Worth area occurred when there was a weak or moderate El Nino.
better chances of ice storms …?The five snowiest winters since 1914 in DFW occurred during an El Ni?o but they were all weak to moderate El Ni?os,? State Climatologist Nielsen-Gammon said. ?There has not yet been a strong El Ni?o that produced more than 4 inches of snow in DFW.?
?To have ice, you don?t have extremely cold temperatures like with snow,? Nielsen-Gammon said. ?You just have to get a little below freezing to have ice.?
no more drought?
A strong El Ni?o is usually followed by its sister weather phenomenon, La Ni?a, that brings dry conditions to Texas.
?By this time next year, we may be in our next drought,? Nielsen-Gammon said.It is just life in Texas!Read full story at StarTelegram
