Good morning and happy Saturday!  Conditions will begin to slowly improve today across the panhandle, rolling plains and far western north Texas as temperatures climb to just above freezing by around noon today.  Seeing some reports that many of the major roads across the area have been treated and are becoming passable, but secondary and rural roads will remain icy for several more hours before we begin to see any improvement.  Precip will continue across the area today, but is expected to gradually lighten up by early this afternoon through evening and once temps rise above freezing it will fall as just cold rain. Another round of precip is expected overnight, however with temps across the area expected to be warmer than last night, there will be less chance of seeing ice or sleet.  By Sunday, travel conditions are expected to significantly improve with only minor travel hiccups remaining…primarily during the early morning hours. Be sure to check http://drivetexas.org/  before traveling today and early tomorrow.

For north Texas, the flood threats will continue through Sunday with an additional 1 to 3 inches expected on top of what has already been seen.  Rainfall across the area since Friday has been impressive with some areas north and northeast of the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex seeing 7 to 9 inches already.  Currently, the DFW metro area is seeing a lull in the rain with scattered rain off to the east/southeast and heavier rain and icy precip across western north Texas.  We’ll see this change later tonight with another round of heavy rain expected to arrive after midnight. Between now and then, just scattered light rain is expected on and off during the day.  Flash Flood Watches remain in effect across the entire area until Sunday afternoon when most of the rain is expected to move away to the east.

The cold front is expected to finally move through coastal and south Texas this morning after getting hung up just inland over the past 12 hours.  As such, highs for today have likely been reached and you folks will see temps gradually dropping during the day.  Elsewhere, chilly and dreary with low clouds and the aforementioned rain expected today and through the overnight hours.  The good news is that we’ll see a little bit of a warming trend by Monday with more seasonable highs for the remainder of the coming work week.