Cool weekend, Arctic front ahead for North Texas

North Texans will have cool temperatures and a slight chance of rain for the final weekend of 2014.

But an Arctic front, which arrives next week, will give residents a freezing end to the year and the start of 2015.

Forecasters are calling for a 20 percent chance of showers Friday evening and Saturday in Tarrant County. Highs on Friday should be in the mid-60s. Areas of fog could pop up in Tarrant County early Saturday.

It will stay cool on Saturday and Sunday as a cold front arrives Saturday morning. Daytime temperatures will be in the mid-40s to the low 50s during the weekend. Morning temperatures will be in the lower 30s.

Monday’s high temperature will be about 55 degrees.

Then, North Texas will get cold as the Arctic front arrives Tuesday morning.

“There will be lots of cold air with this front,” said meteorologist Matt Stalley at the National Weather Service in Fort Worth on Friday. “We could see freezing morning temperatures from Wednesday through Friday next week.”

North Texans will have daytime temperatures in the low 40s on Tuesday and wake up on New Year’s Eve with a temperature of 29 degrees. The high may just reach 35.

Those temperatures, however, are nowhere near record lows for North Texas on New Year’s Eve. The record low is 13 degrees, which has been reached twice _ once in 1976 and again in 1990, according to the NWS. The predicted 35 for New Year’s Eve also falls short of a record. In 1946, the record high was 25 degrees.

Forecasters don’t foresee any chances for precipitation for New Year’s Eve. The record for that day is 1.55 inches in 1984.

New Year’s Day also will be cold in North Texas. Morning temperatures will be 28 or 29 degrees and a high in the lower 40s. Those temperatures will be cold, but not record temperatures. The record low for New Year’s Day in the Fort Worth/Dallas areas is 10 degrees in 1928, according to the NWS.

There’s a slight chance of showers, 30 percent, on New Year’s Day, but forecasters are not calling for any wintery mix.

Domingo Ramirez Jr., 817-390-7763

This story was originally published December 26, 2014 at 10:11 AM with the headline "Cool weekend, Arctic front ahead for North Texas."