🥶 Southern Plains Ice Possible on Tuesday

A small and fast moving system might cause some travel headaches.

It looks like a quick shot of precipitation will fall on the Southern Plains on Tuesday with the potential for ice accumulations during the day. There is a pretty pronounced warm layer of air aloft -- and the difference between sleet or freezing rain is always a difficult forecast. Regardless, this doesn't look like an all-timer of an event to be sure.

A sounding from Southern Oklahoma on Tuesday morning shows cold surface temps but much warmer temps above the surface.

Sleet or Freezing Rain?

The difference in precipitation type on these sorts of events is always tricky but it is important. The impacts of sleet or freezing rain are very different! This writer has seen enough of these storms to say confidently that expect surprises is the right call.

• The depth of the warm layer above freezing aloft does seem somewhat narrow which would favor sleet. 

• Typically, these sorts of air masses …