An Arctic cold front surged south through North and Central Texas on the evening of December 17. High temperatures reached the 70s on the afternoon of the 17th, then dropped rapidly into the 20s by late evening behind the front.
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Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS FWD wrote it up.
An Arctic cold front surged south through North and Central Texas on the evening of December 17. High temperatures reached the 70s on the afternoon of the 17th, then dropped rapidly into the 20s by late evening behind the front. Temperatures plummeted into the teens by the morning hours of the 18th, and lows in the teens were felt again the morning or the 19th.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Fort Worth, TX wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Dec 18, 11:21 PM CST, 39 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Fort Worth TX 1121 PM CST Sun Dec 18 2016 .AVIATION... VFR through Monday night with north flow. High clouds have temporarily cleared across the region but mid and upper level moisture will continue streaming in from the Pacific and result in a partly cloudy sky on Monday. A north wind will continue through Monday evening at speeds between 5 and 11 knots. The wind will remain northerly until Tuesday morning. 79 && .PREV DISCUSSION... /ISSUED 356 PM CST Sun Dec 18 2016/ Brrr is not scientific but that word probably best describes the weather. After a very cold morning with lows ranging from 9 degrees at a couple of unofficial sites in the northwest to the mid 20s across the Hearne to Palestine areas, temperatures have struggled to warm up. So far this afternoon highs have remained below freezing across most of the forecast area, ranging from the mid 20s northwest to the mid 30s southeast. We will continue to have some thin to occasionally opaque high clouds move across North and Central Texas tonight. With northerly winds expected to decrease to 5 to 10 mph tonight, temperatures should reach the upper single digits in some spots west and northwest of the Metroplex to the lower 20s across the southeast. We have issued a Hard Freeze Warning for areas from Eastland to Weatherford to Gainesville northwestward where temperatures are expected to reach 10 degrees or lower. This will be the first Hard Freeze Warning that we have issued since December 6th, 2013. The forecast low of 14 degrees at DFW would be the coldest that they have been since February 2, 2011 (13 degrees). This still won't be a record for the day since the record coldest December 19th is 7 degrees set in 1924. The forecast low of 16 degrees at Waco would the coldest that they have had since January 4th, 2014 (16 degrees). 16 degrees is the record low for December 19th at Waco which was set in 1924. With light northerly winds and partly to mostly sunny skies Monday, temperatures will rise into the mid 30s to lower 40s Monday. As the arctic high moves east, expect winds to come around to the south overnight Monday night, temperatures will start to moderate. Lows will be mostly in the 20s. Dry weather will prevail through the end of the work week. As a shortwave moves across the Plains Wednesday, a cold front will move into the northwestern zones late Wednesday afternoon and through the rest of the forecast area by midnight. We'll warm into the mid 40s northeast to the mid 50s west Tuesday and upper 40s northeast to mid 60s west Wednesday. Expect near seasonal normal highs Thursday and Friday with mostly 50s expected. As we move into the Christmas holiday weekend, a chance of showers will return ahead of a vigorous upper level trough. As instability increases ahead of an approaching cold front Sunday, there will be a chance of thunderstorms. Although there are some model differences, it looks like rain chances will end across the area late Sunday as colder air filters in behind the cold front. We'll have to keep an eye on the track of the upper level low as its track could result in some precipitation late Christmas day/evening in the cold air across the north. 58 && .PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS... Dallas-Ft. Worth 14 38 25 50 35 / 0 0 0 0 0 Waco 16 40 23 50 35 / 0 0 0 5 0 Paris 13 38 23 47 32 / 0 0 0 0 0 Denton 10 37 22 50 32 / 0 0 0 0 0 McKinney 12 37 23 48 32 / 0 0 0 0 0 Dallas 15 39 27 51 37 / 0 0 0 0 0 Terrell 14 37 25 47 34 / 0 0 5 5 0 Corsicana 16 39 27 49 36 / 5 0 5 5 0 Temple 18 39 25 50 35 / 5 0 0 5 0 Mineral Wells 10 37 23 54 33 / 0 0 0 0 0 && .FWD WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... Hard Freeze Warning until 9 AM CST Monday for TXZ091>093-100>103- 115>117-129-130. && 79/25
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE FORT WORTH TX 346 PM CST SUN DEC 18 2016 TXZ091>095-100>107-115>123-129>135-141>148-156>162-174-175-191200- MONTAGUE-COOKE-GRAYSON-FANNIN-LAMAR-YOUNG-JACK-WISE-DENTON-COLLIN- HUNT-DELTA-HOPKINS-STEPHENS-PALO PINTO-PARKER-TARRANT-DALLAS- ROCKWALL-KAUFMAN-VAN ZANDT-RAINS-EASTLAND-ERATH-HOOD-SOMERVELL- JOHNSON-ELLIS-HENDERSON-COMANCHE-MILLS-HAMILTON-BOSQUE-HILL-NAVARRO- FREESTONE-ANDERSON-LAMPASAS-CORYELL-BELL-MCLENNAN-FALLS-LIMESTONE- LEON-MILAM-ROBERTSON- 346 PM CST SUN DEC 18 2016 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR NORTH AND CENTRAL TEXAS. .DAY ONE...TONIGHT. TEMPERATURES TONIGHT WILL FALL INTO THE SINGLE DIGITS GENERALLY NORTH AND WEST OF AN EASTLAND TO STEPHENVILLE TO SHERMAN LINE. AS A RESULT...A HARD FREEZE WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR THESE LOCATIONS. THIS LEVEL OF COLD WILL RESULT IN THE POTENTIAL FOR PIPES BURSTING IF PROPER PRECAUTIONS ARE NOT TAKEN. IN ADDITION...A VERY LIGHT BREEZE WILL RESULT IN WIND CHILL VALUES FALLING INTO THE SINGLE DIGITS ACROSS ALL OF NORTH AND CENTRAL TEXAS. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...MONDAY THROUGH SATURDAY. THERE IS A SLIGHT CHANCE FOR THUNDERSTORMS ACROSS NORTH AND CENTRAL TEXAS ON SUNDAY. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS NOT EXPECTED AT THIS TIME.
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 cold/wind chill. Local standard time, as filed.
Cold conditions during the overnight hours led to the death of a homeless person outside of a South Dallas building. Temperatures fell into the teens across the Dallas-Fort Worth area that Monday morning.
As the offices recorded each death: direct deaths were caused by the weather itself, indirect ones by something it set in motion.
| Event | Date | Age | Sex | Where | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cold/Wind Chill, Dallas | 2016-12-19 | Female | Outside/Open Areas | Direct |
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Texas in 2016Every state in 2016This day in weather historyWarnings in Texas, December 2016
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 667889.