Severe Weather to Return to the Gulf Coast Next Week

By Brian Edwards, Meteorologist

January 5,2013; 2:42PM,EST

A potent storm will dive through Texas early next week, sparking a new round of severe weather for millions of residents along the Gulf Coast.

This will be the same storm system which is expected to bring Up to 3 inches of snow to the Grapevine and parts of Southern California on Sunday.

This system will dive through the Desert Southwest on Monday before emerging in Texas on Tuesday.
Moisture from the Gulf of Mexico will interact with the aforementioned storm producing widespread showers and thunderstorms from San Antonio, Texas through Mobile, Ala., Tuesday afternoon.
With an abundance of cold air aloft, the stage will be set for a severe weather outbreak from Houston, Texas through New Orleans, La. and Pensacola, Fla.

At this point, the timing for the severe weather is a bit up in the air. But it certainly appears like either Tuesday night or Wednesday could feature the worst of the severe storms.
Large hail could be a big issue with the amount of cold air aloft, along with damaging wind gusts and a couple of tornadoes.
Many of these areas along the central Gulf Coast were just hit on Christmas Day with a devastating amount of severe weather.
Not only will high winds, tornadoes, and hail be a large threat, but heavy, flooding downpours are likely.
In fact, our forecast tools are showing the potential for greater than 3 inches of rainfall over parts of eastern Texas, including across the cities of Tyler and Houston. That bulls eye of very heavy rain could extend into western Louisiana as well.
While still a bit of uncertainty in how exactly this storm behaves, AccuWeather.com meteorologists are becoming increasingly concerned for this severe weather outbreak.
Keep checking back with AccuWeather.com over the next few days as we fine tune the forecast and timing for severe weather.

Also click on our Severe Weather Center for information and expert videos.