Good morning. It is March 25th, and Houston will experience a serious springtime heat wave this week. The average date of the region’s first 90-degree day typically does not come until May, based on historical data:
Houston-Bush Intercontinental: May 7
Houston-Hobby: May 6
Galveston: June 21
College Station: May 2
However, all locations but Galveston will probably hit 90 degrees this week, or come very close. With lots of sunshine and heat, please take care when outside during the middle of the day. You’ll definitely need some sunscreen out of doors and plenty of hydration. Unfortunately you won’t be able to socially distance yourself from the humidity.
Wednesday
With high pressure dominating overhead like it’s mid-summer, expect high temperatures to reach about 90 degrees under mostly sunny skies later today. Winds will be very light. Low temperatures Wednesday night will only fall to around 70 under partly cloudy skies.
Wednesday is going to be hot. (Pivotal Weather)
Thursday
This will be another day a lot like Wednesday, with highs near 90 degrees and warm night.
Friday
The pattern begins to change on Friday, although the difference in our weather will be subtle as high pressure backs off to the east. Highs will still be near 90 degrees, but there will be a few more clouds, and winds out of the south will be much more noticeable, gusting to perhaps 25 mph.
Good morning. We’re entering Houston’s “week of summer” and it’s only March. If this is too early for humid nights and hot days for you, don’t fret too much. Before the end of March it appears as though Houston will return to more seasonable, spring-like weather. But it will definitely be warm until then.
Tuesday
High pressure is beginning to build over the region today, but we won’t quite be in the sauna yet. Mostly cloudy skies should help to keep temperatures in the mid-80s for most areas, with light southwesterly winds. Overnight lows will drop into the low 60s for most—warmer along the coast, cooler well inland—with a mix of clouds and stars.
Your forecast highs for Thursday. (Pivotal Weather)
Wednesday and Thursday
High pressure will peak during the middle of the week for much of Texas, including the Houston area. This will lead to unseasonably warm and sunny days, with highs at or near 90 degrees for the region. These will be almost summer-like days with warm nights to match, as lows likely will only fall to around 70 degrees.
Friday
Another warm day, but we should start to see some more clouds mix in as high pressure weakens its grip over the area. Look for partly sunny skies with highs in the upper 80s.
Houston’s brief flirtation with cooler, spring-like weather over the weekend has ended with the resumption of an onshore flow over the region. This will set the stage for a warm, and mostly dry week that will bring the warmest weather of 2020 so far into the region, with conditions positively summer-like by the middle of this week. It’s not out of the question that Houston hits the 90s.
Monday
Under the influence of very moist, southerly air, we should see mostly cloudy skies on Monday with a high in the low 80s. Sunshine may break through near the coast and in Houston later today. Some isolated showers are definitely possible, but for the most part the region should remain rain-free, with light winds. Lows Monday night will probably only fall to around 70 degrees for most of the area.
Tuesday
After another warm start to the day, highs on Tuesday should climb into the mid-80s under partly to mostly sunny skies. Winds will be more noticeable, gusting up to 25 mph out of the southwest in response to an approaching front that will stall out near or north of Houston. Lows Tuesday night should drop into the mid-60s.
Thursday’s high temperatures will be perilously close to 90 degrees for Houston. (Pivotal Weather)
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday
Temperatures and humidity levels should really pop during the middle of the week, with high pressure settling over the area. The combination of a warm southerly flow and partly to mostly clear skies should push daytime temperatures into the upper 80s to 90 degrees. (Houston’s last official 90-degree day came on October 20, a little more than five months ago.) Nighttime lows will generally fall into the upper 60s or lower 70s.
I filled in for Eric all of last week, which feels like it was 25 years ago at this point. Between the profound changes to our daily lives and the lack of virtually any day to day change in our weather since then, it certainly has felt like a warmer version of “Groundhog Day.” Alas! As Eric has been discussing all week, changes are on the way. They begin today. And they continue next week. Break out the shorts. I explain below.
Today & tonight
Rain is falling this morning basically on a line from Columbus in the west to Conroe in the north. Some areas just west of The Woodlands have picked up close to an inch of rain so far today. We’re also watching a batch of storms between San Antonio and Victoria that will try and work across parts of the area this morning.
Rain and thunderstorms are mostly north and west of Houston this morning, but we’re watching some storms southwest of Houston that could move in later this morning. (College of DuPage)
I think a good rule of thumb for the Houston area this morning: Rain will be most likely north or west of US-59. As we go through the morning and into this afternoon, rain will continue to creep south and east but a lot of the support for heavier rain and storms should sneak off to our east. This means while many of us will see some rain today, it will become less concentrated, more scattered, and less significant as we go into this afternoon, even with the front approaching.
Rain totals should be quite variable. Areas north of Harris County should see 1-3″ total today. For northern Fort Bend and northwest Harris Counties, expect an inch or so, give or take a few tenths. For southern Fort Bend and southeast Harris Counties to the coast, some folks may be lucky to see even a quarter-inch of rain from this.
Total rainfall through midnight will range from 1-2″ or more in far northern reaches of our area to maybe a quarter-inch near the coast. (Weather Bell)
Outside of minor street flooding issues north of the Houston area where the heaviest rain falls, we do not anticipate any real flooding problems today.
Timing-wise: The shift to offshore winds should move through northern and western suburbs soon and before midday. It should pass Downtown Houston around early afternoon and reach the coast by late afternoon. Once the front (or pre-frontal trough) passes, we’ll see temperatures stop rising. So that means there will be a wide disparity in temperatures today. We’ll drop from the 70s into the 60s in far northwest suburbs. For Houston and points south and east, we should get close to 80 or warmer again before the front clears the area and drops us into the 60s and low-70s.
Temperatures will continue to drift downward tonight, dropping into the 50s just about everywhere except coastal counties. Houston proper will bottom out near 60 degrees. Look for a few showers tonight, likely coming to an end.
Saturday
The morning should just be mostly cloudy but dry for most folks. If you’ve been trying to get outside for an hour or two each day, I would strongly recommend the morning, especially north of Houston. Showers could develop in the morning south of Houston. Look for temperatures to only slowly warm from the 50s or low-60s into the mid- to upper-60s.
Things change again Saturday afternoon. Today’s cold front is coming back north tomorrow as a warm front. Look for a burst of showers or thunderstorms as this passes by from south to north. The heaviest rain may initially be in the Houston area, but as the warm front progresses north, watch for that to quickly shift back into northern counties, so places like the Brazos Valley, Conroe, or Cleveland will see heavier rain chances again late Saturday afternoon into Saturday evening. All the heavier rain should lift even north of there overnight Saturday into Sunday morning.
Rain totals should be around a quarter-inch or less in Houston and points south again. We could see a half-inch to inch or a bit more in northern counties again.
