Sept. 9, 2020
A too-early winter storm and the seven-day forecast
If it’s not too hot it’s too cold. And so, it goes, as if we need another confirmation the weather is never what we expect. The early winter storm will continue its march spreading snow to parts of the Rockies and the Central Plains through Thursday and will slowly move east from the Four Corners region.
At the time of this writing, several winter storm warnings/advisories are in effect from northeast Utah to Southeast Wyoming and south to Northern New Mexico. With the Cold Canadian airmass settling into much of the Intermountain West and North-Central U.S. behind this cold front, many locations from the Northern Midwest to Central New Mexico have freeze warnings/frost advisories in effect.
The cold blast is causing temperatures to fall much below normal for early September for much of the Central and Southern Plains region (see animated temperature anomaly forecast map below), in some locations by 30 degrees below average. It’s been a hot summer, so the sudden change is a welcome relief for many in the TSCRA area. The cold front will move to the northeast on Thursday, meanwhile, heavy rain is expected for parts of Texas (see seven-day precipitation accumulation map below).
Summer Temperature and Precipitation Trends
NOAA released their temperature and precipitation rankings for August on Sept. 9. The below maps show the rankings for temperature and precipitation trends for the 2020 summer (June-July) by county.
For temperature, the Texas Panhandle, West/Far West Texas, Central Texas, and parts of the Gulf Coast saw temperatures much above normal. El Paso County observed its hottest summer on record going back to 1895. There were many more counties that saw their second or third hottest on record.
As it often goes, where temperatures are above normal, precipitation is below normal. Presidio, Jeff Davis, Reagan, Glassrock, Upton, and Ector Counties observed their driest summer on record. Several other counties were in the top 10 of their driest summers. Parts of East and South Texas, though, saw an above average summer thanks in part to tropical moisture. Hidalgo County for example, observed its third wettest summer.
For those interested in NOAA’s rankings, they are released around the second week of each month. You can find more statistics on their website at www.ncdc.noaa.gov.