After a warm weekend, is winter over? No.

Parts of Houston reached 80 degrees on Sunday, and we’re going to have another similarly warm day today. That raises the question: Is winter over?

The short answer is no. A fairly strong cold front will arrive this week on Tuesday, and next week has the potential to be even colder. The forecast models suggest we will see an Arctic outbreak in the upper Midwest, and there’s the possibility some of that very cold air may reach down into the Houston area by around Wednesday, Feb. 10. Obviously there are no guarantees so far out, but at this point next week does look quite cold.

All of the global models, including the Canadian shown here, indicate an Arctic Outbreak during the middle of next week. (Weather Bell)
All of the global models, including the Canadian shown here, indicate an Arctic Outbreak during the middle of next week. (Weather Bell)

For now let’s focus on this week.

TODAY

Some fog is possible this morning, especially along the coast. There’s some question as to cloud cover, but if there are fewer clouds it’s possible that more of the Houston area will hit 80 degrees this afternoon. In any case, it will be another warm day, and an increasingly muggy night. Lows tonight won’t fall below the mid-60s.

TUESDAY

The leading edge of the cold front will arrive Tuesday morning, and there may be a few showers as it moves through, but I am not expecting any kind of significant rain. This will bring some drier air into the region, and skies will clear, but temperatures will still climb into the 70s and really won’t start falling until the afternoon or especially evening hours. They will fall pretty quickly after sunset. Lows Tuesday night will be in the low 40s.

WEDNESDAY-FRIDAY

We’ll have three solid days of winter-like conditions in Houston, with sunny days, highs around 60 degrees, and overnight lows in the 30s. Friday morning looks to be the coldest of the bunch, with mid-30s in the city, and a freeze possible for areas north of Houston. As we get closer to the date I’ll try to better pinpoint the freeze line.

THE WEEKEND

Some rain chances return by the weekend, but for the most part I expect highs in the 60s with partly sunny skies.

Posted at 6:40 a.m. CT

2 thoughts on “After a warm weekend, is winter over? No.”

  1. I’m not sure who designed that map, but there are far too many colors on it for it to be easily read. Pus a major graphics no-no of using the same colors more than once on the scale.

    Best I can tell, it means 30F or possibly a little cooler for Houston. Not really THAT bad…

    • It’s simple enough to read if you look at the accompanying graph. Temps in Texas will be between 25º and 35º, and your guess of 30º is pretty spot on. So apparently you can read it just fine.

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