In brief: After Tuesday’s mild weather, winter is back on the menu this morning and it’s a feast for all. With gusty winds today it will feel cold all day and night. By early Thursday morning temperatures should fall below freezing for all of the metro area, with the possible exception of the immediate coast. Thursday night into Friday morning will be nearly as cold.
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Cold and gusty
Be sure and bundle up before heading outside this morning. Air temperatures are generally in the mid- to upper-30s across the metro area. However, with northerly winds at about 20 mph, and gusts of 30 mph or higher, it feels considerably colder. These strong winds will be with us for most of today, so it will be brisk all day long. Fortunately the precipitation is over so we have no concerns about ice or anything like that on roads for the next couple of days.
Our biggest concern will be cold, with a light freeze likely for most of the Houston metro area, and a hard freeze (25 degrees, or below) is possible for inland areas, including The Woodlands and Katy. This freeze should be less impactful than the one we experienced earlier this winter, when temperatures were 5 to 10 degrees colder. Statewide, much of Texas will be in a deep freeze. However, ERCOT forecasts that sufficient electricity should be available.
Wednesday
Wind chills are in the teens across much of Houston this morning, and we’ll be slow to warm up with partly to mostly cloudy skies. Eventually temperatures should reach the upper-40s this afternoon, but I don’t expect these gusty winds to die down before this evening, or even the overnight hours. With partially clear skies and lesser winds, tonight should bring the coldest temperatures for Houston. The map below shows the best estimate for minimum temperatures on Wednesday night and Thursday morning.
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Thursday
Although the winds will be lighter, we can still see some gusts of 15 or 20 mph on Thursday morning, so when you add the wind chill on top of frigid air temperatures, we’re looking at wind chills in the teens again. So another morning to really bundle up before heading outside. Skies will be sunny on Thursday, so that will be nice. (And it’s probably our last sustained sunshine until Sunday afternoon or Monday, so soak it up). But it will still be cold, in the mid-40s. Expect another cold night, with temperatures perhaps 1 or 2 degrees warmer than Wednesday night.
Friday
Clouds will build back in, making for a very chilly day. Expect highs to maybe only top out at about 40 degrees. Fortunately, with the thick clouds, temperatures won’t fall much on Friday night.
Saturday
We’ll start to warm up on Saturday, but the proximity of a low over the Gulf of Mexico will bring a healthy chance of showers into the forecast for Saturday during the day, and likely well into the evening. I don’t think these will be particularly impactful rains, but with air temperatures generally in the vicinity of 50 degrees on Saturday, any light to moderate showers will be cold and unwelcome. Lows on Saturday night drop into the mid-40s.
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Sunday
Some light showers may linger into Sunday morning, but by the afternoon I expect to see some partially clearing skies. Temperatures will be warmer, with highs in the low 60s. This should lead to a period of mostly sunny skies.
Next week
Spring is in full bloom next week, with highs generally in the 70s and lows in the 50s. We should see plenty of sunshine. A weak front may move in toward the end of the work week, but at this point it does not appear as though there will be much of a cold air push with it.