A strong cold front pushed through the panhandle earlier today, western north Texas this afternoon and is now pushing into the western half of the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex as I type.  Winds behind the front are gusting in the between 15 to 25mph on average, with some gusts pushing close to 30mph.  Temperatures behind the front tonight will be quite chilly with lows expected to drop down into the low 40s across the panhandle, upper 40s across western north Texas and the northern Permian Basin region, and mid to upper 50s just behind the frontal boundary which should have pushed just south of the I-20 corridor by early tomorrow morning.

The front is expected to stall out across south central Texas tomorrow afternoon which will create quite a temperature gradient across the state.  Some areas behind the front will struggle to get into the 60s with cloud cover and scattered rainfall expected for much of the day.  Ahead of the front, we’ll be looking at highs quite toasty for this time of the year with mid 80s expected across much of south central Texas, and highs possibly reaching the upper 90s across deep south Texas.  As always, it’s a tale of two seasons when it comes to fall in Texas!

Rainfall chances overnight will be confined mainly to the panhandle region which should begin to see scattered showers develop in the wee hours tomorrow morning.  Rainfall chances will continue to develop behind the front and expand eastward into western north Texas by late tomorrow morning and through the afternoon hours.  As we reach peak daytime heating tomorrow afternoon, chances for isolated to scattered thunderstorms just ahead of the stalling cold front will impact parts of central Texas as well. There isn’t much of a risk of severe weather, but we can’t rule out a bit of thunder and lightning along with gusty winds and some brief heavy downpours.  Rain is forecasted to continue Thursday night across northern Texas coming to an end from west to east on Friday.  Highest rainfall accumulations are expected to be along the Red River counties which could see close to 1.5 inches by Friday afternoon. Elsewhere across north Texas, rainfall amounts will be generally less than 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch.