Another Year, Another February Snow

By: Shel Winkley - Email

Updated: Fri 1:21 PM, Feb 04, 2011

February 23rd, 2010: A record 3 inches of snow fell at Easterwood Airport to put the day down in the record books.

Almost one year later, here we are again with snow on the ground. Looking at the records for today, only a trace of snowfall has been reported for the 4th of February. We are still awaiting the official word from The National Weather Service but it looks like we may have set a record again with the little bit of snow that we did.

If you noticed, road conditions were much worse today than snow events across the Brazos Valley over the past couple of years. A few of aspects were different this time -- important aspects at that:

1) The past couple of snows, the region has recieved, came on the heels of a couple 70+ degree days. That allowed the ground temperature to remain above freezing initally so that once any snow or ice hit the ground it would melt on contact. This year, we tumbled well below freezing on Tuesday after the arrival of our big cold front and as of this moment (1:15pm Friday) temperatures have yet to climb out of the deep freeze. Once the winter precipitation fell overnight, it instantly froze to area roads.

2) This snow fall didn't actually start out as snow. Around 10pm Thursday night, a light freezing rain fell across Bryan/College Station. Around Midnight a light, dry snow fell, covering up that thin layer of ice with white. Then things got interesting. About 3am, the precipitation once again fell as light freezing rain/mist followed by bigger, wetter snowflakes to wrap up the event. Overall, a recipie for hazardous road conditions.

As of Thursday afternoon, blue skies are reappearing and roadways are beginning to melt. The bad news is we are headed for overnight temperatures in the 20s once again. Any moisture left on the roads will once again freeze and cause patches of ice overnight and into Saturday morning...so please, continue to use caution.

The good news: we finally close the freezer door this weekend and sunshine will get temperatures back into the 50s and low 60s! Enjoy and stay safe!

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