Looking down the road…

12-20-24. 3pm. This update is brought to you by Dietz-McLean Optical. www.dmoptical.com

For the holidays, some of our sponsors are letting me post a photo of them so you can see the faces behind the logos! Today it’s Mclean Optical, featuring three generations of the Mclean family: l-r Cliff McLean, Jim McLean, Drake McLean and Zach McLean. Unfortunately, the family recently lost Jim McLean. We thank them for their gracious support and hope that if any of you need new glasses or contacts, you will consider using them to fill your lens prescription!

With winter starting tomorrow, let’s look a little further into the future, since the CPC posted several of their long-range outlooks yesterday. While the CPC continues to forecast typical La Niña conditions (and weak La Niña conditions) with less rain than normal and warmer than normal conditions for the next three months, looking at the latest long and medium long-range model runs, I’m getting the vibes that we may be finally seeing a pattern change (at least for moisture) starting after Christmas. As we see below, all of the major long-range models are predicting a wet January. Let’s remember that winter is our driest season of the year, so 1-2 inches of rain during any winter month is a good thing. Also, the odds for severe storms are low, so seeing a major storm system that would deliver 3-5 inches is rare.

While we’ve so far seen a very warm winter, I have posted an interesting slide from the NWS…the biggest snowfalls ever recorded in San Antonio and Del Rio happened during a La Niña year.

Mark