Tornado Threat and Then Frigid Cold Moving Into East Texas

• Severe Storms Expected Sunday Morning in East Texas
• Strong Cold Front Will Push Through Sunday Afternoon
• Temperatures Will Dip Into the 20s With Wind Chills in the Teens

Ever since Christmas, numerous posts on social media have shared details about an Arctic blast that will move into the South starting in the second week of January. All the weather models I have seen agree on this.

Deep East Texas will start seeing low temperatures into the 20s by early Monday morning with wind chill readings into the teens. No wintry precipitation is expected in the Pineywoods through the middle part of next week. However, beyond that...remains to be seen.

Severe Weather Before the Cold Front

The polar front should push through much of East Texas by Sunday afternoon, and temperatures will fall from the 60s to the 40s by sunset. That line of colder air will set off showers and thunderstorms ahead of it, and severe weather could be in the mix of the Pineywoods.

The Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma anticipates that damaging straight-line wind gusts and a few tornadoes will be the biggest threats from these Sunday morning storms.

Showers and thunderstorms are expected to move into East Texas between 6 am and 11 am on Sunday, January 5. A few showers will linger throughout some of the afternoon before clearing skies on Sunday night.

East Texas Severe Weather Outbreak

East Texas has experienced three severe weather episodes since Christmas Eve. EF0 to EF3 tornadoes have been reported from Toledo Bend to southeast Texas. The heaviest damage occurred from Port Arthur to the Bolivar Peninsula and near Alvin, Texas.

Forecasters have not indicated, as of yet, the level of volatility that we may see from Sunday morning's storms. The Storm Prediction Center will issue an outlook overnight Friday that will give better insight into the possibility and severity of tornadoes, wind, and hail from these upcoming storms.

We will bring that update to you in a separate post on Saturday morning. 

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