Cold fronts in the winter can bring a variety of precipitation, anything from a cold rainfall all the way to snow!
All precipitation starts the same, as ice crystals in the upper-levels of the atmosphere. After these crystals form, they grow and become snowflakes. The temperature profile of the atmosphere will determine what type of precipitation you get as gravity brings the snowflake downward.
In our case, since temperatures aloft will be warmer than the surface, we will get freezing rain. Freezing Rain occurs when rain falls onto a surface that is below freezing, instantly creating a sheet of ice.
Now some of you are wondering, why won’t we see sleet? Well, because our warm air aloft will be pretty thick! This allows the rain to make it all the way to the ground before freezing.
Here’s a look at temperatures at the surface and above us going into Saturday:
You can see that warm air aloft taking over on Saturday, setting the stage for the freezing rain in the evening.
The big impacts from Freezing Rain are icy roads and weighted-down powerlines. We won’t see enough ice in San Antonio for that to happen, but we will certainly see icy roads overnight into Sunday morning.
Be prepared ahead of time and stay safe this weekend!
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