{"id":3631,"date":"2017-12-28T12:26:29","date_gmt":"2017-12-28T18:26:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.texaselectricityratings.com\/blog\/?p=3631"},"modified":"2017-12-29T11:29:26","modified_gmt":"2017-12-29T17:29:26","slug":"texas-winter-forecast-2017-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.texaselectricityratings.com\/blog\/texas-winter-forecast-2017-18\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Winter Forecast 2017-18"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A Chilly New Year\u2019s Eve in Dallas might mean a colder winter ahead.
Can you afford your current electricity rates?<\/p><\/div>\n

What will happen to my Texas electric bill?<\/h3>\n

Homes in Dallas and north Texas might ring in the coming New Year with their furnaces.<\/p>\n

Night time low temperatures<\/a> in the low 20s and a daytime high of only 33\u00b0F will bring a very wintery start to 2018. How long the cold will last is not exactly certain, yet.<\/p>\n

For some households, a high electric bill is the last thing they need, especially after this summer\u2019s brutal hurricanes. After all, according to NOAA\u2019s earlier forecasts, Texas was supposed to be basking in above-average warmth this winter. What\u2019s up with all the cold? How long is this going last? What\u2019s going to happen to my Texas electric bills<\/a>?<\/p>\n

A weak to moderate La Ni\u00f1a has formed in the Pacific. La Ni\u00f1as usually affect North America by creating a blocking high pressure ridge in the north Pacific. The Polar Jet stream<\/a> bends around that ridge so that it swoops southwards along the Canadian Rockies. Then it heads eastward over the Great Plains, veering northeasterly as it passes the Great Lakes and then heads over New England and the Canadian Maritime Provinces for Greenland. La Ni\u00f1a winters tend to be colder in the northern US plains but dry and warm the southwest, the Gulf coast, and Texas. That is, usually.<\/p>\n

Currently, there is lots of warm high pressure situated over the Rockies and Utah. East of this, a low pressure frontal boundary running from the Gulf of Mexico, over Florida, and eastwards over the Atlantic there has created is a trough which is letting arctic air<\/a> flow into it, covering the eastern half of the country.<\/p>\n

This trough and ridge pattern is likely to stick around for the next two weeks, bringing cold weather<\/a> and increased chances for above average rain fall to Dallas, Fort Worth, and the rest of Texas. Afterwards, it\u2019s thought warmer temperatures should move back in. But, there\u2019s some uncertainty about that because of how different weather mechanisms might interact over the first two weeks of January:<\/p>\n