February: Calm Weather To End The Month

[tireman4]

I thought it was too warm Katdaddy.....

[tireman4]

You are right Ed. In Wake Forest, North Carolina, in February 1992, I have seen it snow, heavily for two hours in 36 degree weather.

[vci_guy2003]

Light sleet and graupel falling here on 1960/ champion forest wow

[Katdaddy]

A few Very light sleet pellets here in W League City.

[Katdaddy]

It came and went with a blink of an eye. You never forget the soft ping from falling sleet. Ok now I am ready for Spring. Light rains moving up the middle TX Coast.

[brendan_w_2002]

Persistant light to mod sleet up here near Hooks for the past 5 minutes.

[jasons2k]

I've seen some light sleet pellets as warm as 50 degrees. It wasn't too long ago - one morning last winter or maybe the year before. I posted about it on here b/c the soundings didn't support sleet, but it was sleeting. The pinging on the windshield is something you can't miss. It was one of those situations where it was warm at the surface but extremely dry all the way up to a mid-high level cloud deck with some virga....and a few sleet pellets that made it down. The evaporative cooling allowed just enough droplets to supercool, freeze, and not evaporate on the way down. Probably not too unlike the first band or two moving across here today.

[srainhoutx]

Persistant light to mod sleet up here near Hooks for the past 5 minutes.

We had the same here in NW Harris County a few minutes ago. There was some graupel mixed in as well.

[TexasBreeze]

Sleeting by Hooks Airpt where I'm at.

[Katdaddy]

Looks like another light sleet shower is approaching NW Galveston County from the Alvin area

[jasons2k]

It's 46 degrees and sleeting here in Imperial Oaks!!! I went outside in my short sleeves and felt like a kid again!

[tireman4]

Now, to be honest, I have been running inside and was looking out the window and did not see anything in Humble, but of course, I was not looking for it. 52:30 for 7 miles. Woo Hoo.

[jeff]

Have been getting IP for the last 15 minutes in Spring...FM 1960 at Hardy Toll Rd

[srainhoutx]

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HOUSTON/GALVESTON TX
515 PM CST SUN FEB 12 2012

TXZ163-164-176>179-195>200-210>214-226-227-235>238-130200-
HOUSTON-TRINITY-MADISON-WALKER-SAN JACINTO-POLK-BURLESON-BRAZOS-
WASHINGTON-GRIMES-MONTGOMERY-LIBERTY-COLORADO-AUSTIN-WALLER-
HARRIS-CHAMBERS-WHARTON-FORT BEND-JACKSON-MATAGORDA-BRAZORIA-
GALVESTON-
INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...CROCKETT...TRINITY...GROVETON...
MADISONVILLE...HUNTSVILLE...SHEPHERD...COLDSPRING...LIVINGSTON...
CORRIGAN...ONALASKA...CALDWELL...LAKE SOMERVILLE...
COLLEGE STATION...BRYAN...BRENHAM...NAVASOTA...THE WOODLANDS...
CONROE...WILLIS...LIBERTY...CLEVELAND...DAYTON...COLUMBUS...
EAGLE LAKE...WEIMAR...SEALY...BELLVILLE...HEMPSTEAD...
PRAIRIE VIEW...BROOKSHIRE...HOUSTON...PASADENA...KATY...TOMBALL...
HUMBLE...WINNIE...MONT BELVIEU...ANAHUAC...EL CAMPO...WHARTON...
PIERCE...SUGAR LAND...MISSOURI CITY...RICHMOND...ROSENBERG...
EDNA...BAY CITY...PALACIOS...PEARLAND...LAKE JACKSON...ALVIN...
ANGLETON...FREEPORT...LEAGUE CITY...TEXAS CITY...FRIENDSWOOD...
GALVESTON
515 PM CST SUN FEB 12 2012

...LIGHT RAIN MIXED WITH SLEET POSSIBLE THIS EVENING...

AN AREA OF VERY LIGHT RAIN WILL MOVE INTO SOUTHEAST TEXAS THIS
EVENING. VERY DRY LOW LEVEL AIR AND LOW WET BULB FREEZING HEIGHTS
WILL ALLOW FOR A FEW ICE PELLETS OR SLEET TO MIX WITH THE RAIN
THIS EVENING. THE ATMOSPHERE WILL CONTINUE TO WARM OVERNIGHT AND THE
POTENTIAL FOR SLEET WILL DIMINISH. NO SLEET ACCUMULATIONS ARE
EXPECTED. VERY LIGHT SLEET WAS REPORTED IN SOUTHERN MONTGOMERY
COUNTY NEAR RAFER RD AND I-45 AT 505 PM.

[tireman4]

Ok Jeff, you are 15-20 minutes from me. It must be moving this way.

[jasons2k]

VERY LIGHT SLEET WAS REPORTED IN SOUTHERN MONTGOMERY
COUNTY NEAR RAFER RD AND I-45 AT 505 PM.

I-45 & Rayford (not "Rafer") is just a couple of miles from here...

[wxman57]

Have been getting IP for the last 15 minutes in Spring...FM 1960 at Hardy Toll Rd

Nothing in SW Houston. Jeff, are you sure you're seeing sleet and not graupel? Sounding has all precip forming in sub-freezing air above 700mb, which should be snow. There isn't any above-freezing followed by another sub-freezing layer (which would produce sleet) indicated. See the sounding below.

Could super-cooled water above 12,000 ft be going directly to ice vs. snow crystals to produce sleet? Or are we seeing graupel, which is partly melted and re-frozen snowflakes? Graupel is round like sleet but much whiter and softer (generally).

This is what graupel looks like:

[srainhoutx]

SHORT TERM FORECAST
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HOUSTON/GALVESTON TX
529 PM CST SUN FEB 12 2012

GMZ330-335-TXZ163-164-176>179-195>200-210>214-226-227-235>238-
130200-
MATAGORDA BAY-GALVESTON BAY-HOUSTON-TRINITY-MADISON-WALKER-
SAN JACINTO-POLK-BURLESON-BRAZOS-WASHINGTON-GRIMES-MONTGOMERY-
LIBERTY-COLORADO-AUSTIN-WALLER-HARRIS-CHAMBERS-WHARTON-FORT BEND-
JACKSON-MATAGORDA-BRAZORIA-GALVESTON-
INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...CROCKETT...TRINITY...GROVETON...
MADISONVILLE...HUNTSVILLE...SHEPHERD...COLDSPRING...LIVINGSTON...
CORRIGAN...ONALASKA...CALDWELL...LAKE SOMERVILLE...
COLLEGE STATION...BRYAN...BRENHAM...NAVASOTA...THE WOODLANDS...
CONROE...WILLIS...LIBERTY...CLEVELAND...DAYTON...COLUMBUS...
EAGLE LAKE...WEIMAR...SEALY...BELLVILLE...HEMPSTEAD...
PRAIRIE VIEW...BROOKSHIRE...HOUSTON...PASADENA...KATY...TOMBALL...
HUMBLE...WINNIE...MONT BELVIEU...ANAHUAC...EL CAMPO...WHARTON...
PIERCE...SUGAR LAND...MISSOURI CITY...RICHMOND...ROSENBERG...
EDNA...BAY CITY...PALACIOS...PEARLAND...LAKE JACKSON...ALVIN...
ANGLETON...FREEPORT...LEAGUE CITY...TEXAS CITY...FRIENDSWOOD...
GALVESTON
529 PM CST SUN FEB 12 2012

.NOW...
VERY LIGHT RAIN MIXED WITH SLEET WILL BE POSSIBLE THIS EVENING.
THE POTENTIAL FOR SLEET WILL END BY MID EVENING AS SLIGHTLY WARMER
MID LEVEL AIR MOVES INTO THE REGION. NO ACCUMULATIONS OF SLEET ARE
EXPECTED. RAINFALL AMOUNTS THIS EVENING WILL GENERALLY BE A TRACE.

[jasons2k]

I'm pretty sure what I'm seeing here is sleet. The droplets are round and frozen solid. I've seen graupel a number of times in North Texas and it still had a slightly white almost flaky appearance to it. They were like a cross between snow grains and sleet. They always reminded me of the half-melted comet in Superman 1 as he got close to the earth (silly analogy, but I'm a visual person). These today are IP and solid through.

EDIT: WxMan - that pic does remind me of the graupel I've seen before. This is not that - these are indeed IP.

[srainhoutx]

I'm pretty sure what I'm seeing here is sleet. The droplets are round and frozen solid. I've seen graupel a number of times in North Texas and it still had a slightly white almost flaky appearance to it. They were like a cross between snow grains and sleet. They always reminded me of the half-melted comet in Superman 1 as he got close to the earth (silly analogy, but I'm a visual person). These today are IP and solid through.

It was sleet/graupel mix here, Jason. Melted almost on contact. The heavier 'echos' in Austin County appears to be sleet heading E toward Waller, Western Harris and Western Montgomery Counties.