Blog Article

Texas Cold Front Brings Wind and Fire Danger This Weekend

A strong cold front is bringing drastic temperature changes, gusty winds, and critical fire weather to Texas and the Plains. Find out how it affects your weekend.

Corsets, Canvas, and a Crashing Cold Front: Texas' Wild Weekend Weather

Get this, y'all. If you are heading out to the Main St Fort Worth Arts Festival or strapping on armor for the Scarborough Renaissance Festival down in Waxahachie this weekend, you might want to rethink your outfit.

We have been enjoying some beautiful, unseasonably warm spring days lately. Dallas normally sits right around 77 degrees this time of year. But a massive cold front is currently sweeping across the country, and it is bringing a little bit of everything to the table. It is about to completely change the vibe for anyone spending their Saturday and Sunday outside.

Down in Central Texas, right around Waco and Killeen, we are tracking a Marginal risk for severe storms today. The main threat is isolated, marginally severe hail. As that front pushes south and stalls out, folks along the South Texas coast are looking at a Marginal risk for excessive rainfall tomorrow.

But the biggest story for the Southern Plains is not the rain. It is the wind and the incredibly dry air trailing behind the front.

Bone Dry and Howling

Out in the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles, stretching up into western Kansas and eastern Colorado, the Storm Prediction Center has highlighted a Critical fire weather area for Sunday. We are talking about relative humidity dropping into the single digits. Combine that with southwesterly winds sustained at 15 to 25 mph, and you have a recipe for rapid fire spread.

Why is it so dry? As air flows down the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains, it compresses and warms up. That process zaps the moisture right out of the air.

When you mix that dry downslope wind with a parched landscape, any spark can become a major problem. A thrown cigarette or a dragging trailer chain is all it takes to start a wildfire in these conditions.

A Drastic Cool Down

This front is not just a Texas story. It is dragging a drastic cool down across the entire central and eastern United States. After a week of feeling like early summer, we are snapping right back to reality.

Up in Upstate New York and northern New England, this system is actually producing late-season snow. The higher elevations of the Adirondacks and the Green Mountains could see over four inches of accumulation by Sunday night.

Folks admiring paintings in Fort Worth and those watching a joust in Waxahachie will both notice the wind picking up significantly today. If you live out west in the Panhandle, hold off on any outdoor burning until this dry air mass moves out.

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