A significant, multi-day winter storm is about to begin across Texas. Winter Storm Warnings are now in effect today through Wednesday for the Concho Valley, Big Country, North Texas, Hill Country, Central Texas, northern Brazos Valley, Texoma, and parts of North Texas. This warning includes San Angelo, Abilene, Brownwood, Kerrville, Stephenville, Austin, Waco, Mineral Wells, Sherman, the entire D/FW Metroplex, Corsicana, Tyler, and Paris.

A Winter Weather/Travel Advisory includes West Texas, the northern Edwards Plateau, the southern Brazos Valley, and Northwest Texas. That advisory includes Plainview, Lubbock, Del Rio, Uvalde, San Antonio, Bryan/College Station, and Texarkana. Finally, a Winter Storm Watch across the Permian Basin and Northwest Texas (Midland to Snyder to Wichita Falls) will be upgraded to a winter storm warning or travel advisory later today.

All in all – we’re expecting the worst road conditions to be from this evening through Wednesday morning. However, we’re already seeing freezing drizzle across parts of West Texas down into the Hill Country. Sleet storms will bring deteriorating road conditions to parts of North Texas and Texoma this afternoon – including within the D/FW Metroplex.
Once roads go downhill, they won’t likely improve much until temperatures rise above freezing on Wednesday. Even then, we may see colder temperatures hold rigid – with more precipitation falling and possibly accumulating as more ice in some regions. Let’s deal with the Wednesday forecast once we get past today.

It will only be precipitating some of the time today through Wednesday. We’ll see lulls in between heavier waves. With a layer of warm air aloft, we will not be dealing with snow this time. Folks who stay above freezing at the surface will deal with rain—those who fall below freezing with freezing rain or sleet. If we’re dealing with primarily freezing rain, we may see an enhanced threat of a damaging ice storm – involving trees and infrastructure. For those with more sleet than freezing rain, we’ll see difficult to hazardous travel conditions – with some ‘cobblestone’ ice possible as we see sleet accumulations melt down (or get compacted down) into a more solid chunk of ice.

Regardless of the exact precipitation type – those receiving winter precipitation can expect winter driving conditions on roads.