SATURDAY, Jan. 7 (HealthDay News) — If you exercise outdoors in
cold weather, you need to take certain steps to stay safe, an expert
advises.

The main issue is hypothermia, which is excessive loss of body heat,
explained Dr. Cedric X. Bryant, chief science officer at the American
Council on Exercise.

Layers of clothing keep you warm and give you the ability to control
your body heat while exercising. A hat or helmet is crucial, because you
can lose about 50 percent of your body heat through your head when the
temperature is at the freezing mark.

Wear gloves and warm footwear. It can be difficult to keep hands and
feet warm when exercising in the cold. Lower air temperatures cause the
body to shift blood away from the extremities to the center of the body to
warm and protect the internal organs, Bryant said in a council news
release.

While superficial warming of the hands will restore normal blood flow,
this does not occur in the feet unless the temperature of the torso is
normal or slightly higher than normal. This means that, to keep your hands
and feet warm, you also have to keep the rest of your body warm at all
times, Bryant explained.

Before you go outside to exercise, check the air temperature and wind
chill factor. If your skin is properly covered, there is little danger
when the temperature is 20 degrees Farenheit, even if there is a 30
miles-per-hour wind, according to National Safety Council data cited in
the release.

However, exposed skin is in danger when the wind chill factor (a
combination of air temperature and wind) falls below minus 20 degrees.

If you’re exercising in the danger zone for skin exposure, you should
wear a scarf or mask over your nose and mouth, to warm the air before you
inhale it, Bryant advised.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about cold
weather hazards and safety.

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/safety-tips-cold-weather-exercise-140407695.html

TWO COLD FRONTS THIS WEEK, BUT NO RAIN AND STILL MOSTLY SUNNY…

Two cold fronts are lining up for us in North Texas this week.  One arrives tomorrow morning and another arrives Friday night into Saturday morning.  Neither looks like it will bring us any rain, and neither looks like they will bring us much in the way of cloud cover.  So the pleasant weather will continue thru the week.

COLD MORNING FOR NORTH TEXAS…

This morning was the coldest morning we have seen at DFW since Dec. 8^th.  It was 28 degrees this morning at DFW.  Here are some other morning lows from around the area.

TONIGHT…

Not as cold tonight as a few high clouds will arrive overnight into tomorrow morning.  It will be chilly but now as cold as last night.  Low tonight of 37.

TOMORROW…

A few clouds in the morning and early afternoon but mainly mostly sunny with a high of 58.  Winds will shift to the north behind the cold front by midday, and they will be in the 5 to 15 mph range.

THURSDAY…

Thursday morning will be chilly with lows in the mid 30s.  Thursday afternoon will be sunny with a high of 62 as winds shift to the west.

FRIDAY…
This will be our warmest day of the week with highs close to 70 degrees as winds shift to the west/southwest.

COLD FRONT FRIDAY NIGHT INTO SATURDAY…

Our second cold front will arrive Friday night into Saturday morning bringing slightly cooler temps for the weekend.  Lows Saturday morning will be around 40 degrees with highs Saturday in the mid to upper 50s.

SUNDAY…

Sunny and cool with lows near freezing in the morning and then highs in the mid 50s.

EARLY NEXT WEEK…

There is some difference in timing for our next storm system.  There will be a cut-off upper level low pressure system that will start out in west Texas and then move east.  Some models bring this system close to us on Monday while others hold off until Tuesday.  So for now there will be a slight chance of rain in the forecast for Tuesday and not Monday.  But depending on the track of this system we may need to increase or decrease rain chances for next week.

Article source: http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2012/01/03/two-cold-fronts-this-week-but-still-pretty-nice-weather

We kick off the New Year with the theme from 2011: Dry. The weather pattern started to shift away from a wet pattern (December ended with 4.35″ of rain, above normal)  to a dry one more typical of an La Nina year. Last year (2011) was ranked the 28th driest on record (since 1899). Some locations west of DFW recorded their DRIEST YEAR EVER.

Mild conditions will prevail this week. Lows tonight will dip down to the upper 20′s along the Red River Valley, low 30′s in the Metro. Highs tomorrow will be in the upper 50′s with less of a north wind than today.

Highs will generally be in the 60′s from Tuesday to Thursday, near 70° on Friday before the next front comes through. Below I’ve put in three panels showing the evolution of the upper air pattern for the upcoming week. Notice that by Sunday a upper-level trough will be sitting off just to our west, this should be some rain in our area Saturday, maybe even Sunday. I circled in red where the best rain chances should be in a weather pattern like this:

If you look over southern Nevada you’ll see a H, meaning high pressure. During the first three weeks of December there was a Low parked there most of the time putting us in the storm track most of the month.

The High pressure actually starts helping a trough build in the center of the country, allowing for the Pacific west coast storms to race into the central plains.

As this trough digs down into the Southwest it should help spawn a low pressure system over Texas as the bottom of the trough swings to the east. The best rains will likely be in the Hill country and coastal areas as well as east of the state.

Article source: http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2012/01/01/dry-weather-to-start-2012