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By Anna Skinner
Associate News Editor
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A Texas city received an entire year's worth of snow in only 15 hours on Sunday night when an arctic blast prompted an unusual weather pattern that generated snow in the Lonestar State.
The arctic blast brought frigid temperatures, bone-chilling winds and heavy snow to much of the United States over the weekend and on Monday. The storm system blanketed parts of Texas with several inches of lake-effect snow.
Lake-effect snow occurs when temperatures plunge while lake waters are still relatively warm. It is more common in the Great Lakes region, but northeastern Texas experienced the phenomenon when temperatures dropped to the low teens in the Fort Worth area.
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Winds blowing out of the north and northeast traveled over several lakes and then produced substantial lake-effect snow when they reached land again.
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Notable snowfall amounts were 2.3 inches in Coppell, Texas, and 2 inches in Forney, Texas. National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologist Ted Ryan told Newsweek that those cities receive an average of 2 inches of snow annually. However, the region can go years without snow while occasionally seeing much higher totals.
"It's rare to see amounts this high," Ryan said of the lake-effect snow, adding that typically, lake-effect snow in Texas only produces snow flurries that don't accumulate into measurable amounts. "What's unusual about this one is just the prolonged nature of it and the amount of snow that fell downwind of the lakes. We've never seen anything quite that high before."
Warmer temperatures in November and December meant that several lakes in Texas, including Lake Lewisville, Lake Lavon and Eagle Mountain Lake, had warm waters when the cold spell arrived. It was the first cold snap the area experienced this season, which contributed to the snowfall.
"If we were to have that same repeat of cold air coming again, say next week, the lakes would be much cooler, and we wouldn't have quite the same amount of snow," Ryan said.
The NWS office in Fort Worth shared a snowfall map on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday.
"Lake Effect Snow... In Texas? Take a look at some of the snow amounts that fell in our area," the office posted. "Note the heavier snowfall just south of many of the lakes nearby. While it's not as crazy as the lake effect snow in the Great Lakes, we still think it's pretty cool!"
The winter storms also produced heavy snowfall in Nashville, Tennessee, which received more than one year's worth of snow in only one day when 7.6 inches of snow fell on the city. Florida residents also saw flurries in the panhandle, although the snow didn't accumulate.
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