As they say in Poltergeist, they’re here! If you’ve been watching our coverage, clearly the snow and ice glaze on overpasses and roads has been a nightmare for some folks and now the even colder temperatures are on the way. Bush/IAH hasn’t been above freezing all day, so any Monday High forecasts in the 30s are a bit suspect! Once the precipitation begins to leave later this afternoon, we do have a chance to warm up some, but the clouds will hang on for the rest of the day. Tomorrow the sun is back.
I get asked a lot which weather model does better, the American or European. Every situation is different and so I generally look at them all until I get more confidence in one over the other. As it happens, for our temperatures the next couple of days the American and European are the same, which is a good confidence builder! Neither did very well last Friday (the forecast in parentheses) for tomorrow morning temperatures leaving the National Weather Service meteorologists (the humans!) far ahead of the game.
I don’t know what to say about the Canadian model and that Wednesday morning forecast of 11 degrees and now changed to 12!
Here’s a wider look at the European across our region for tomorrow and Wednesday morning. Take precautions as in many cases the temperature will likely fall a degree or two colder than what we see here:
A final word on the Wind Chills which will be in single digits: Yes, animals are affected! While the math for calculating wind chill is for “bare human skin”, any sentient being is going to feel a difference when heat is blown away from their skin or fur! As a rule of thumb, dogs with a thick coat should be out in this cold no more than 30 minutes while short-haired dogs should come in after 15 minutes. Dogs can suffer hypothermia just like humans, so protect those pets in this cold weather!
Frank
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