WATCH: Texas Low makes its way to eastern Canada and the U.S.
TORONTO – There’s more snow in Toronto and it’s all due to a Texas Low.
No, this isn’t the name for a great hand in a card game. It’s another meteorological term that is creeping up in a winter that seems rife with rarely heard weather words.
READ MORE: Winter weather words: Unusual winter weather expanding our vocabulary
So just what is a Texas Low?
First, you need to know that any low pressure system brings unsettled weather, like clouds, rain, or snow. A low is an area of atmospheric pressure that has a lower pressure than the air around it. The air rotates counterclockwise, rises, and then cools, which often condenses into precipitation.
A Texas Low is also known as a “panhandle hook” or even a “panhandle hooker.” These low pressure systems generate out of — you guessed it — Texas.
But what makes them produce all the precipitation is the moisture that they draw up from the Gulf of Mexico. The system follows the jet stream, taking it up towards the Great Lakes. There, the colder air makes the system laden with moisture fall as snow. Texas Lows are large; most Ontario blizzards that occur are due to these systems.
Interestingly, the system that sunk the legendary ship Edmund Fitzgerald was due to a Texas Low.
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