Good Morning from KRBC Meteorologist Chris Whited...* Mostly cloudy to cloudy for today with a breezy south wind throughout the day. Temperatures warm into the lower and middle 60s. A stray shower could develop by late in the afternoon but the best chances for rain come tonight. Showers and thunderstorms will develop tonight across West Central Texas. Locally heavy rainfall is possible A few storms could be strong but severe weather is not expected as any severe weather should be down toward the Hill Country well away from us. Lows hold near 50° tonight
* Thursday: Showers and thunderstorms with locally heavy rainfall is expect most of the day tomorrow across the Big Country, Heartland and the Northern Concho Valley. A changeover to a wintry mix is possible by late afternoon, the evening and into the overnight period. The cold front should move into the northern areas of the Big Country tomorrow morning and move along the I-20 corridor by midday and into the Heartland/Northern Concho Valley areas by early afternoon. As the front moved in temperatures will drop throughout the afternoon and evening. Our highs for the day should be set early in the morning in the upper 40s/lows 50s and we should be into the 30s by afternoon. As temperatures get colder by late day is when the wintry mix comes into the picture. Lows drop into the middle 20s. Little accumulation is expected at the moment as the main energy of the system should track more north taking any heavier snow north of here although their could be some light accumulations north of U.S. 380 (Aspermont-Haskell-Throckmorton line) tomorrow night and Friday morning. Expect the precipitation to change to all snow early on Friday morning across the area. Light snow Friday morning should end but there could be a few snow flurries lingering into the afternoon with highs in the middle 30s. Clouds should begin to decrease by the afternoon setting us up for a very cold Friday night with lows dropping into the upper teens and lower 20s.
* Weekend: Cold start on Saturday morning but mostly sunny with highs in the upper 30s and lower 40s. Saturday night we drop down into the middle 20s. Mostly sunny on Sunday with highs back near 50° for most of the area.
* The Winter Outlook: The Climate Prediction Center indicates a moderate El Niño pattern continues to bring West Central Texas a wetter pattern here in the winter months. Increased wintry precipitation is possible depending on temperature trends. Equal chances of above or below normal temperatures remain possible for the area.
* Drought Information: For the latest drought information for the state of Texas please visit the U.S Drought Monitor website by clicking here. The data is updated by the government every Thursday morning around 7:30 AM local time.
* Join us for the latest news and weather updates in the mornings for Abilene & the Big Country on KRBC's Abilene Today at 6:00 A.M. and on Abilene Midday at 11:30 A.M. Our news and weather coverage continues in the afternoon at 5:00 and tonight 6:00 and 10:00 P.M. on KRBC.
* KRBC on Twitter: You can follow us on twitter anytime for quick weather updates, especially during severe weather and winter weather events affecting the Big Country by visiting the KRBC Weather Twitter. News updates from KRBC and our website BigCountryHomepage.Com are available via twitter also by visiting the Big Country Homepage Twitter.
Have a nice Wednesday...
