Friday - Saturday Snow Forecast, Image: NOAA

Friday – Saturday Snow Forecast, Image:  NOAA

Dallas TV forecasters are reporting freezing conditions overnight after a snow storm left more than an inch of the white stuff on the ground in the Big-D.

The computer model image above shows where precipitation may fall Friday night into Saturday morning. I drew in the “snow line”, snow is forecast to fall in areas above the line. In this model, it is not forecast to snow as far south as New Orleans. However, these models update every few hours, and temperature changes in the storm itself Friday night may cause snow to fall and possibly accumulate. Watch the previous TV link for the latest forecast in Southeast Louisiana. 

Snow is forecast across the Southern States in the next several days as a Gulf low develops. It’s very difficult to forecast snow, for several reasons. You need freezing temperatures in all levels of the atmosphere for snow to occur. (It can be above freezing at the surface, but the snow may not stick.) You also need ample moisture in all levels of the atmosphere.  And, third, you need a lifting mechanism, in the form of low pressure, for air to rise and continually cool.

In New Orleans, where snowfall rarely sticks, there’s a slight chance for a rare early snow event. If it did snow in New Orleans, it would beat last years record event, which was the earliest snowfall in the city’s recorded history. Click here for the latest TV forecast in New Orleans.

Currently, winter storm watches are in effect North and West of Southeast Lousiana, where 1-3 inches of snow accummulations are expected, beginning late Friday evening.

This storm system will then track through the Mid-Atlantic region and then out to sea.

-Dawn Brown