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Fridays snow earliest on record
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CopyFriday's unexpected snow was a record setting event marking the earliest snowfall event for the Houston/Galveston area.
A National Weather Service news release stated, "Snow has never fallen this early across southeast Texas. The previous earliest snow occurred on Dec. 10, 2008 and Dec. 10, 1944. Accumulating snow fell on a 60 mile swath from Edna to Houston. The snow accumulations were generally on grassy areas.
And while there is no snow in the forecast, Kirkland said Bob Rose from the LCRA is calling for a nice weekend with colder weather arriving again next week.
"After a very chilly weekend, the weather has become damp and soupy across the region," Rose said in his latest e-mail report. "A fairly strong cold front will sweep across the area Tuesday night bringing dry and cooler weather for Wednesday and Thursday. A chance for rain will develop Friday when another Pacific storm system moves across our region. This will be followed by dry and mild weather conditions this weekend. Some of (Tuesday's) long-range modeling indicates cold, arctic air will spread south through the middle of the country and into Texas early next week. While confidence is not high just yet, temperatures early next week have the potential to turn sharply colder...., some of today's forecast solutions indicate an arctic cold front will spread south across the Plains states early next week, possibly reaching Texas late Tuesday or early Wednesday. This system looks dry but it could bring another freeze to much of the region by the middle of next week. Stay tuned for more updates."
Wharton County Emergency Management Coordinator Andy Kirkland said that satellite images catching the snowfall showed that Wharton County took the brunt of the weather, an opinion confirmed by the snow totals reported by the NWS at 6:25 p.m. on Friday. Local reports had portions of the East Bernard area at between one and two inches. Leading the area were Lane City and Boling with four inches each while Richmond reported 3.1 inches, Wharton and Fairchild 3.0 inches, El Campo and Pearland 2.5 inches and Edna and Bay City two inches.
"And I think that total is short of what was actually received," Kirkland said. "When it first started snowing, Chief Deputy Bill Copeland and I went out to Boling and there were spots where there was already two to three inches of slush along the road. There could have easily been five or six inches of snow in places."
Kirkland said the early snow was the result of an unusual weather pattern that brought a deep mass of cold air to the area.
"The snow was beautiful to see," he said. "But it is unusual to get a cold air mass deep enough to generate snow. And it isn't even winter yet (that season officially starts on Dec. 21.) Right now, Wharton County has had more snow than Chicago.
"Actually, we usually only get snow every four to five years. We had some that didn't stick last Christmas but the last time we had any stick was in 2004, which is about right. I remember there were long, long stretches without snow when I was growing up here."
Kirkland said there were a number of reports of wrecks Friday during the snow event, most of which involved cars sliding off the road with minimal damage.
"We don't get much snow here so people are used to driving in it," he said. "But we were fortunate in that it seemed most involved people sliding into a ditch and just needing to be pulled out. The snow itself caused some visibility problems but mostly it was people sliding when they hit bridges or overpasses. The streets held their heat and melted off but when you get the cold air under the bridge or overpass it tends to freeze faster. The two where we see it first in Wharton County are the U.S. 59 overpasses at Highway 60 in Hungerford and FM 960 in El Campo."
Copyright 2009 East Bernard Express, East Bernard, Texas. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from SmallTownPapers, Inc.
© 2010 East Bernard Express East Bernard, Texas. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.
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