DALLAS — December went out much like it started: warm. In fact, December 2021 will go down as the warmest on record. The days leading up to New Year's Eve trended close to 20 degrees above average with highs in the low to mid-70s.
What does this mean for New Year's Eve plans?
Rain chances return Friday afternoon as an approaching shortwave moves in from the southwest. As of now, heavy rain looks to hold off until after 4 p.m. New Year's Eve with the highest coverage of rain during the late-night hours after midnight. This means any NYE plans could be wet.
Most of the day Friday will be cloudy; this will limit how unstable our air will be. However, we cannot rule out the potential for an isolated strong storm during the evening hours, especially north of I-30. As of now, the Storm Prediction Center has parts of North Texas under a Marginal (1/5) risk for severe weather with a few counties under a Slight (2/5) risk.
Storms will be possible through the late night hours into early Saturday morning, which could be strong to severe as well.
Much colder air moving in
Rain comes to an end from west to east late Friday night into Saturday morning as an arctic cold front approaches the area.
The front moves from northwest to southeast during the day Saturday. Likely arriving in D-FW around midday.
Colder air filters in through the night Saturday with a breezy northwest wind, bringing the coldest air of the season so far. Sunday morning lows will be in the 20s area-wide with wind chills in the teens!
Remember the four P's - People, Pets, Plants, and Pipes.
NYE and New Year's Day across the rest of the country
The storm system that will bring showers and storms to North Texas will first bring rain and snow to areas to our west.
That storm system will emerge into the plains bringing rain and storms to the southern U.S. on New Year's Day. Severe storms are possible for parts of the Deep South.
Snow will be possible across the Plains, but the western U.S. will finally start to dry out from the repeated rounds of rain and snow over the past week.
