How will storms on the West Coast affect the weather in North Texas this week?
The short answer is that the current California storm will bring a sharp cool-down to North Texas, but it's unlikely to bring rain. One may ask, "But why isn't all that precipitation coming to Texas?" Let's take a deeper look…
Storm systems and weather patterns rarely move in a straight line. This is especially true with the latest rounds of relentless rain and snow out west in California. So what's keeping all that rain and snow away from Texas?
Basically, there are two major barriers keeping it from Texas. The predominant driver has been the jet stream. A ridge in the jet stream has acted like a blockade over the Central and Southern Plains. (The ridge is evident by the black wavy lines below. Notice the "hump" in the middle of the country - that's the ridge).
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This ridge of high pressure has deflected the recent rounds of California storms to the north. (That ridge is also the reason we've been enjoying a mild weather pattern).
The second barrier is a geographic one, the Rocky Mountains.
In fact, the current storm over California will travel across the Rockies and move in our direction. However, in typical fashion, the mountains will disrupt the storm.
Much of the moisture (rain and snow) from this storm will fall on the western slopes of the Rockies. The mountains force the air to rise, which further contributes to heavy precipitation. However, on the eastern side of the mountains, that air must follow the terrain and come back down. This results in drier air and much less precipitation on the eastern slopes.
The storm will survive after crossing the Rockies, but essentially have to "regain" strength over the Central Plains.
By the time this happens, the moisture will be quite limited to offer North Texas any significant rain chances.
The rain chances look better to the east of here, as the storm picks up moisture from the Gulf of Mexico.
Although we're likely to miss out on the rain, there is one significant weather change the West Coast storm will bring to North Texas - a drop in temperatures.
This temperature change will be the result of a Pacific cold front (not an arctic cold front). This type of cold front basically means temperatures will certainly be cooler, but it will not be a dramatic blast of cold air.
We'll simply fall back close to normal as we go from highs near 80 on Tuesday and Wednesday, down into the upper 50s by Thursday.
