Month: September 2017

Houston has about another week or 10 days of summer-like weather before we finally transition into a fall-like weather pattern. Aside from the heat and scattered thunderstorms, there are no major weather concerns during that time. Meanwhile, a day after Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico, we are only beginning to come to grips with the storm’s devastation there.

Thursday

Much like we saw on Wednesday, when nearly 3 inches of rain fell east of Houston near Mont Belvieu, we have an unstable atmosphere above Houston today capable of producing heavy rain showers. Although most areas may see at least some light rain (measured in tenths of an inch) today, the heavier thunderstorms should be scattered and therefore I don’t anticipate any widespread street flooding. But we’ll be watching conditions this afternoon just in case.

Friday and Saturday

As high pressure builds over the area a bit, rain chances should fall back to about 25 percent, or less, each day. Look for warm, mostly sunny days with highs in the low 90s, and a chance of afternoon showers. The end of summer may be nigh, but it will still be with us this weekend.

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Tuesday offered a quiet day across the Houston region, and our weather for the rest of the week will probably be more or less the same, with warm days and the potential for some scattered showers and thunderstorms.

Wednesday and Thursday

In the absence of high pressure, and moderately high moisture levels, we’ll see partly sunny skies on both days with a chance of afternoon and evening thunderstorms. This will probably be the case where a few isolated areas get one-half or more inch of rain, while the rest of the metro area receives light rainfall, or none at all. Either way, any rain should die off around sunset, and should present no flooding issues. Look for highs around 90 degrees.

Friday and Saturday

Not much change heading into the weekend, but as higher pressure edges closer to the region on Friday, I’d expect mostly sunny skies and highs of around 90 degrees—with only isolated showers. We can’t rule out rain on either of these days, but I would not expect it. These should be good days for the beach or other outdoor activities for which you don’t mind a little bit of late-summer heat.

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Heavy rains returned to Houston on Monday evening for the first time since Hurricane Harvey. And these weren’t just light rains (as we’d forecast), but a real deluge for some areas. Sims Bayou along 288, for example, collected nearly three inches of rain between 7pm and 8pm. In some neighborhoods flooded by Harvey, where people had put possessions and drywall and other flood debris on the street, trash piles floated away like flotsam in running water. The rains fell. Lightning crashed all around. Psychologically, it was hard to handle. Could it be happening again?

But this time, they ended. As we heal our homes, Houston, don’t forget to heal your minds as well. Harvey and its like will not return again soon. More pleasant fall weather, with a drier atmosphere, will come within a couple of weeks.

Today

Although moisture levels remain fairly high today, most of the high-resolution forecast modeling indicates that storms won’t be nearly as widespread today, nor as intense. The radar, at 6:30am CT, also shows less coverage offshore than on Monday morning. For this reason I’m anticipating fewer problems this afternoon and evening. Again, as these storms are driven to some extent by the sea breeze and daytime heating, they should ebb again as the Sun goes does. Expect highs near 90 degrees.

Wednesday and Thursday

In the absence of high pressure, a similar pattern will prevail across the Houston metro area, with scattered showers and thunderstorms. Some of these storms could be intense, but because there should be no large-scale, organized activity we don’t anticipate flooding problems. Even after Monday’s heaviest rains, area bayous are near, or at normal levels.

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With high pressure moving out of the area after nearly three weeks of dry weather, copious amounts of pent-up atmospheric moisture broke out into thunderstorms over parts of Houston today. A few areas west of downtown received 2 to 3 inches of rainfall. Admittedly, some of these storms were stronger than expected, as atmospheric moisture levels surged this afternoon.

This has prompted the Houston/Galveston office of the National Weather Service to issue an “areal flood advisory” for Monday evening, through 8:45pm CT for the following areas:

This is not a particularly high level of threat, but storms in the indicated areas could generate some minor flooding this evening. These storms should subside by or before sunset, with the loss of daytime heating.

A similar pattern is possible Tuesday, although at this time we don’t expect the storms to be quite so intense.