.. Weather Update #7 ..

NWS watches/advisories/warnings (as of 555pm today) by issuing NWS office:

NWS/Austin-San Antonio:
WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY continues for the greater Austin area and the IH35 Corridor
as well as for all of the Texas Hill Country to the west, including Burnet, Blanco, Gillespie and Llano
Counties until 9 am Tuesday morning (little accumulation along IH35 corridor counties to
1/4″ inch or less accumulations for the Hill Country).

NWS/San Angelo:
WINTER STORM WARNING continues for Mason County until 6am Monday (up to 1 inch
ice/sleet/snow accumulations).

NWS/Fort Worth:
WINTER STORM WARNING for all of the DFW Metroplex and the IH35 corridor southward
to Waco, Temple, Killeen, Fort Hood and Belton continues until 12 noon Monday (sleet
accumulations to near 1 inch, ice accumulations to 1/10th inch and little or no snow accumulations).

I’m afraid that there is not much new to report this evening. Across south central Texas,
we are right along a line where freezing/frozen precipitation could really cause problems
to the north and just a cold rain falls to the south of that line. Mark Fox of the
NWS/Fort Worth office pointed out earlier today in one of their statements.. “This is one
of the more challenging winter weather forecasts we’ve dealt with in the past couple of
years.” I know what he means!!

We’ve had several reports of sleet mixed with the rain across the Austin area this afternoon and
this evening, but the sleet has melted on the ground with NO problems reported. Temperatures
have cooled a couple of degrees (due to evaporative cooling), but, at 5pm, are still 3 to 5
degrees above the freezing mark.

With another disturbance or two to the west.. we’ll continue to see precipitation on and off
through Monday night into Tuesday with some mixed winter precipitation expected.  The
temperature profile will support a rain/sleet mix over the next 24 to 30 hours.. then a little
better chance of sleet and snow flurries by tomorrow night into early Tuesday. As I’ve pointed
out above, we’re going to be right on the line with this system, so we need to monitor since
we could end up back in a mess quickly if the upper air system forecast track changes or the
air temperature profile in the atmosphere turns is colder than expected.

Remember… a winter weather advisory (as defined below) is in effect for Williamson..
Travis.. Hays and Comal Counties and counties westward across the Hill Country until
9am Tuesday morning.