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Powerful Pacific System Impacting the West; First Significant Snow for Portions of the East

Power Pacific system will continue to bring significant impacts for Pacific Northwest into northern California the remainder of the week. Dangerous coastal affects, heavy rain, flooding, strong winds, and higher elevation mountain snow continues. Meanwhile, a storm across the east is set to bring the first accumulating snow to many higher elevations of the Catskills into the central Appalachians. Read More >

Overview

On Jan 3rd, 2019, a compact but vigorous southern stream closed low moved across west Texas and slowed down as it approached the Red River Valley. This allowed plentiful moisture and lift to wrap around the system as it strengthened. Cold air on the backside of the low interacted with increasing moisture to produce a persistent band of snow across the far eastern Texas Panhandle. The heavier snow (6 to 8 inches) fell from Higgins to Canadian to Wheeler to near and west of Wellington. However, areas along and west of Borger to Amarillo stayed high and dry with just a few mid level clouds.

 

Fig 1: Mid-level water vapor imagery from GOES 16 shows the low pressure system as it moves east along the Red River Valley.

 

Fig 2: GOES 16 CIRA Geocolor reveals snow over the eastern Texas Panhandle and western Oklahoma as the sun rises on Jan 4th.

 

 

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