Accumulating Snow For Parts Of Texas and Oklahoma

Snow chances are increasing for parts of Texas and Oklahoma Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. A potent shortwave will traverse across the Southern Plains during this time frame, which will aid in the development of precipitation.

Shortwave moving into Southern Plains generating precipitation

The forecast soundings show a moist atmosphere throughout the entire column and a thermal profile conducive for rain transition to snow for much of the Oklahoma Panhandle, Texas Panhandle, and western parts of Oklahoma.

Forecast sounding Wednesday morning in western Oklahoma

The difficult part of this discussion is forecasting the snowfall accumulations and time in which the rain transitions to a rain/snow mixture followed to a transition to all snow. This makes snowfall accumulation forecasts extremely difficult, but a few inches may be possible in areas. The greatest chance for accumulating snowfall is in the Texas Panhandle and Oklahoma Panhandle; numerical guidance is indicating a dusting to an inch for much of this area. I do believe isolated 1-2″ amounts are possible.

Snowfall accumulations according to the NAM

FHWs snowfall forecast

The snow that falls Tuesday night into Wednesday should taper off, and accumulations melt, by early afternoon on Wednesday. Temperatures will remain chilly throughout the day.