After the rains, summer comes to Houston this week

Well, it’s been quite the start to the year 2016. We’ve had floods west of Houston, northwest of Houston, north of Houston southwest of Houston, east of Houston—pretty much all over the city. This most recent rain event, during the second half of last week, was enough to push the city above 1992 for the wettest year to date, through June 5.

The city has officially recorded 39.67 inch of rain at Bush Intercontinental Airport (blue line below). This is all the more remarkable because, only about six weeks ago, the city was actually below normal for total rainfall for this year:

(Victor Murphy/National Weather Service)
(Victor Murphy/National Weather Service)

But now we’re going to get a chance to dry out.

TODAY

Today will probably be a lot like Sunday, albeit with less rain coverage during the afternoon hours. Although the low pressure system has moved far off, we’re still under its northwest quadrant, which should allow some more showers to develop this afternoon, moving from northeast to southwest. Like yesterday these storms should be fairly scattered, but capable of producing some isolated heavy rains. Highs today will likely in the upper 80s for most of Houston.

TUESDAY through THURSDAY

With less moisture we should mostly sunny days. During at least one of these three days we should see our first 90-degree day of 2016. If you haven’t felt like it’s really been summer-like yet this year, that should change this week. I won’t entirely rule out the chance of some pop-up showers during the afternoon, with daytime heating, but I expect a good, solid three day period for the region to really dry out.

FRIDAY and NEXT WEEKEND

With a stronger flow of onshore moisture resuming, I think we’re going to see more partly cloudy skies beginning Friday. This may limit high temperatures to the upper 80s, and it’s going to allow for a pattern again where some thunderstorms are possible, especially during the afternoon or early evening hours. It’s not something I’d get too worked up about in terms of flooding, at this time it doesn’t seem like we’re going to see really organized storm activity. However those with outdoor plans this weekend may well see a few showers.

6 thoughts on “After the rains, summer comes to Houston this week”

    • I totally hate Texas! The humidity is my nemesis! Born here. Travelled around and found wonderful weather. Colorado, Alaska, Washington state! Etc.. Oh well, to the retort, why don’t I leave? I’m poor!!!

  1. Though the temp hovered around 89* for a couple of hours today, it looks like we escaped one more day without hitting 90*. If we can survive the next couple of days without hitting 90* (which would be fortunate indeed), we may have a shot of breaking the record!

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