Wednesday is going to be a cold and rainy day! High temperatures will likely hover around 40° through afternoon, with heavy rain becoming widespread across the entire South Plains after 9 AM. Winds will become gusty around sunrise as the center of an area of low pressure tracks closer to the region; possibly gusting over 30 mph throughout your Wednesday. The forecast becomes even trickier as the center of the low pressure system tracks very close to, or right over the South Plains. Being that the air directly below this system will cool, most of the Lubbock Metro area will likely see temperatures slowly fall into the mid-to-lower 30’s by 9 PM. As temperatures cool, the rain could transition to a wintry mix of sleet, snow, and rain by mid afternoon for areas west of Lubbock. This wintry mix will then changeover to all snow later in the afternoon across western areas, with accumulations of several inches possible somewhere on the South Plains. Pin-pointing this exact location is still very difficult. However, it appears that the rain/snow lines will march east; possibly making it to the edge of the Caprock by mid evening. This means, that Lubbock would also transition to a heavy, wet snow between 6-9 PM. Accumulations of just over an inch are possible across the city. What is more certain, is that the heaviest snowfall accumulations will be close to the Texas/New Mexico border; where several inches could make traveling hazardous by Thursday morning.
Rainfall Totals:
Snowfall Totals:
The amounts above are preliminary and on the higher end of what forecast models have been showing for our area. Any subtle change in track of this system could vastly alter both rainfall and snowfall accumulations for west Texas and eastern New Mexico. As it looks now, the main hazards associated with this storm will be minor street flooding in the heaviest rains and slushy roads as snow possibly falls onto roadways which are just above the freezing mark. Ether way travel could become a slow-go tomorrow across the metro area, especially during the evening when wintry precipitation becomes more likely.
As the weather picks up tomorrow morning, Updates will be posted on Twitter @TheRaider881 and on the KTXT Weather page.
Stay dry,
Cutter Martin
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