Both ECISD and UTPB have already announced plans to shut down Thursday.
Odessa College will also be closed Thursday.
UTPB will work remotely and all classes will be remote on both Thursday and Friday. ECISD leaders will wait until Thursday to make a decision on Friday attendance.
With the cold front already coming through the Permian Basin, freezing temperatures are expected to turn precipitation into snow by the early hours of Thursday morning in the Odessa-Midland area. Temperatures began to fall Wednesday afternoon across much of the Permian Basin and Southeast New Mexico. “Currently, temperatures are about 35-36 degrees right now,” Meteorologist David Hefnig at the National Weather Service in Midland said Wednesday morning. “We’re probably not going to see them getting any warmer. We’re going to see them drop throughout the day. There are some scattered showers out there right now, some down around Big Lake and towards Snyder. Until temperatures get down to freezing, there will be some rain showers in cycles like that going on.”
While it was too warm for freezing rain to be sticking on roads, Hefnig said it could stick on exposed surfaces such as signs. As of Wednesday morning, Hefnig said the biggest question was when the precipitation go from rain to freezing rain to snow with the likely answer being late Wednesday afternoon and into the night. “We’re pretty confident that once midnight rolls around, everything will be changed over to snow and probably even before that,” Hefnig said. “The question is really on the timing and a few hours can make a huge difference between whether or not we see a tenth or two-tenths of an inch of freezing rain versus a half an inch of snow or five hundredths of an inch of freezing rain versus three inches of snow. It doesn’t take much change on the timing of that to drill those numbers off. Right now, I think we’re going to see wintry precipitation starting sometime around 3 p.m. (Wednesday) before sunset. It’ll be about three-six hours before changing over to all snow.”
Once that’s changed over to snow, Hefnig says it’ll stay snow at that point. “We won’t have to worry about any of the other mixed stuff,” Hefnig said. “The question becomes how much is going to fall. Most of the precipitation that we’re expecting will be in the overnight hours and then, once sunrise comes up tomorrow, we’re going to start seeing much more scattered.”
A winter weather advisory is in effect for the Permian Basin where snowfall of one to three inches are expected. A winter storm warning is in effect for other areas including the mountains.
The Davis Mountains can expect more with snowfall of three-six inches with locally higher amounts. Roads are expected to become very slushy and slick with snow and ice accumulations causing damage to trees and power lines. “Anything that falls overnight shouldn’t have a problem overnight sticking on the road surfaces,” Hefnig said. “Even if there’s no precipitation, roads will be very slick, especially since tomorrow, we’re not expecting to get above freezing. We’re going to stay cloudy and we’re going to be below freezing. Anything that falls overnight, even though, we don’t see anything during the day, roads are probably not going to get too good during the day.”
There is a possibility of lingering snow showers in the northern and eastern part of the Permian Basin. “Probably, over in the eastern counties, like Colorado City, Seminole and Big Spring, we’ll see some lingering snow showers but here in the Midland-Odessa area, those things should be coming to an end by sunrise,” Hefnig said. “However, because most of the precipitation will be falling overnight and temperatures will be very cold.”
The freezing temperatures will last for likely three days, Hefnig said.
“Once we get down below freezing (Wednesday) afternoon, we’re going to stay below freezing through at least Friday and if we get above freezing, it’ll barely be above freezing,” Hefnig said. “But we really won’t get above freezing until Saturday. So it’ll be about 72 hours of below freezing temperatures and I do want to emphasize that temperatures Thursday and Friday morning are going to be quite frigid with wind chills down in the single digits to negative digits. That’ll be dangerous for people outside. Even after we’re done with the wintry precipitation, we’ll have to deal with some cold temperatures.”
