Heavy Snow — Calhoun, Texas

2017-12-07 to 2017-12-08 · Calhoun, Texas

Event narrative

Snow accumulations of 1 to 3 inches occurred across Calhoun County.

Wider weather episode

A wintry mix of rain and snow occurred over South Texas on December 7th and changed to all snow around midnight of December 8th 2017. Areas of light snow moved into the northern Brush Country during the morning of December 7th. A band of heavy snow occurred over the Coastal Bend during the early morning hours of the 8th. This was the first measurable snow event since the Christmas Snowstorm of 2004.

Two slow moving bands of precipitation set up over South Texas during the evening of the 7th. One band extended from Victoria County to Webb County and another ran along the Middle Texas Coastal counties back to Zapata County. By 10 pm, surface temperatures cooled to just above freezing as the rain to snow transition line pushed southward with rain switching to snow first from Victoria to Cotulla. Within the next hour, the transition line pushed further southward into the Coastal Bend. By 11:30 pm, the band along the coast began to transition to wintry mix.

After midnight as temperatures continued to drop to near freezing, all precipitation had switched over to snow and began to accumulate on grassy surfaces, cars, and creating slushy roadways. Snow continued during the overnight hours over much of South Texas, slowly diminishing from northwest to southeast toward morning as the impacts of the upper jet and drier air moving into the region ended the snow. The two bands of snow slowly shifted eastward through the early morning. By 5 am, the band along the coast dissipated and the westernmost band of snow moved into the Coastal Bend for a second and final round snow. By 9 AM, the snow band had moved offshore, and clouds gradually decreased during the remainder of the day.

Heavy snow occurred in a band along a line from Premont to Kingsville to the south side of Corpus Christi to Ingleside to Rockport. Snow accumulations in this region were in the range of 4 to 6 inches with the maximum of 7 inches in the Kings Crossing subdivision in the south side of Corpus Christi. The heavy snow caused power outages to almost 13 thousand customers, mainly in Kleberg and Nueces Counties.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 730880. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.