A winter mix is underway this morning in parts of the Texas Panhandle. Elsewhere in West Texas and the Borderland temperatures are above freezing, so precipitation is falling in the form of liquid rain. We may see a few slick bridges in the Panhandle today, so keep that in mind if traveling. Otherwise isolated to scattered showers will be possible through Saturday across parts of Texas. We’re not anticipating overly heavy precipitation in this timeframe, but there will be times where folks are getting showers. Friday and Friday Night will feature isolated to widely scattered rain across the eastern two-thirds of Texas. The relative highest rain amounts will be in Northeast Texas with up to half an inch possible. Severe storms are not expected.

A few showers will be possible on Saturday in South-Central and East Texas, again with no severe storms. A strong upper level storm system will pass to our north on Christmas Day. The northward position of the storm system will keep the highest wind shear values north of the state. At the same time the atmosphere will only become modestly unstable. This will allow for a few thunderstorms to occur, but the severe weather risk is very low. Let me be clear – this system is nothing remotely close to last year’s December 26 event. A few showers/storms may produce gusty winds up to 50 MPH on Christmas and Christmas Day, but that’s about it. By Monday the highest rain chances will be along and south of a line from Central Texas through the Brazos Valley and East Texas. We could see isolated to widely scattered showers continue in those regions into next week.

No arctic outbreak is in the forecast over the next week as the jetstream keeps that air bottled up well to our north. Besides the minor winter mix this morning, the remainder of the upcoming five day forecast will feature warmer temperatures. Highs on Christmas Day will range from the lower 50s in the Borderland and western Texas Panhandle up into the 70s in the eastern half of Texas. It will be a warm to very warm Christmas Day with gusty south/southwest winds. Deep South Texas will make it up into the 80s.