Area braces for first cold snap of season
By BARRY HALVORSON bhalvorson@journal-spectator.com

Ready for the cold Staff Photo by Burlon Parsons Mechanic Johnny Gonzales keeps warm at his automotive shop with an old wood-burning cast iron stove. He said he has had the stove for three years and puts in a supply of wood each year to be used during cold weather like this weekend. He keeps his entire shop warm with the stove. Temperatures are supposed to drop to freezing Sunday morning and be back up to the high 60s by Tuesday.

The here again, gone again weather pattern of recent weeks is just a sample of what Wharton County residents can expect for the rest of the winter.

"When you talk about normal weather for Texas, you're basically discussing the average of extremes," Gene Hafele said. He is the acting meteorologist in charge of the Houston/Galveston National Weather Service office.

"The weather is going to be extreme one way and then extreme the other. Right now we have a battle of fronts going on that is fairly significant," he added.

Hafele attributed the rapid and radical weather changes to El Nino. The phenomenon takes its name from the Spanish for "the little boy" in reference to the Christ child because it usually becomes evident around Christmas.

"We've been in a zone where the cold air fronts just barely get here," Hafele said. "It might change the temperature 20 to 30 degrees in just a few hours. But then it's going to start warming up almost immediately. We are going to see some even stronger cold fronts later in the year, but they are only going to last for a few days."

The El Nino is characterized by warmer water along the equator in the Pacific Ocean. He said that forces the Arctic Jet Stream further north than normal.

"We'll get short waves or impulses of cold weather, but the predominant jet stream is going to stay over the central and northern U.S. The deep, cold air is not going to get this far south. But the Northeast and extreme northern U.S. is going to see colder temperatures this year."