Winter storm warning issued for much of central Texas

A winter storm warning has been issued for Austin from 9 a.m. Monday to noon Wednesday. Below is a detailed breakdown of timing and impact.

Austin, Texas — *A winter storm warning has been issued for Hill Country and Travis and Williamson counties from 9:00 a.m. Monday to 12:00 noon Wednesday. A winter weather advisory is now in effect for Hays, Caldwell, Bastrop and Lee counties simultaneously. *

A very winter-like week is ahead in Central Texas. This will include the possibility of a significant drop in temperatures and freezing rain and icing issues. We have a busy forecast, so let’s play them one by one.

After Sunday afternoon’s cold front, temperatures will drop into the low 30s to low 40s by Monday morning, and for many areas, those temperatures will continue to drop throughout the day.

Scattered light showers are also expected throughout Monday, but with temperatures still just above freezing, this should be mostly just normal rain.

However, once the sun goes down Monday night, temperatures will drop to or below freezing across much of the Hill Country and parts of the Interstate 35 corridor. This will be synchronized with another round of precipitation, which is the possibility of freezing rain in hilly areas.

We will have to keep a close eye on the potential for icy roads throughout the hilly region throughout Tuesday morning, especially on bridges and elevated roads.

Temperatures will drop further Tuesday night into Wednesday as another round of more widespread precipitation moves in. Widespread freezing rain is possible along I-35 and in many areas west by Wednesday morning.

We will continue to monitor this potential throughout Wednesday, then by Thursday morning the last of the precipitation will clear and the risk of winter problems will be over.

We have several rounds of possible freezing rain and drizzle to monitor. For each, the greatest potential for icing problems will be across hilly areas. However, even in the Austin metro and I-35 corridor, we need to keep an eye on things, especially Wednesday’s round.

As of now, the icing problem for subways doesn’t seem to be serious, which means there may be some slippery spots on bridges and overpasses, but they won’t necessarily be widespread.

For Hill Country, modeling continues to suggest more severe icing is likely, travel could be more disrupted, and there could even be sporadic power outages due to downed power lines.

The KVUE Weather Team will continue to monitor this developing forecast closely and will update it frequently.

In the meantime, extended forecasts can be found below:

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