Month: January 2025

After a widespread soaking in the Houston area, cool, calm weather takes hold

In brief: After a solid 1 to 4 inch rainstorm in the Houston and Galveston areas last night, we aim for calmer conditions today. Saturday should be a lovely winter’s day, followed by a chance of rain on Sunday. Next week looks quiet with a slow warm-up after a chilly start.

One quick housekeeping item: If you missed it yesterday, those of you who use our app on Apple devices should now have a solution to issues that prevented you from receiving notifications when we post. Check that out here from Dwight.

Weather-wise, it sure rained last night. Often when we look at rainfall estimate maps, they’re fairly erratic. The one for the last 24 hours is not. Everyone saw about 1 to 2 inches, with isolated higher amounts south and east and down close to Victoria. Galveston saw nearly 4 inches of rain and peak wind gusts of 50 to 55 mph.

The heaviest rain fell at the coast as expected, but everyone shared in the bounty. (NOAA MRMS)

But this was just a good old fashioned coastal storm that delivered basically as promised. Now, we get some quieter weather.

Today

It will remain dreary and cold today. Look for clouds to stick around most of the day, though there could be a few breaks of sunshine. Temperatures should only warm into the mid-40s today, though if we see more clearing than forecast, we’ll make a run at 50 degrees. Winds will back down a bit, though it’ll still feel like the 30s through the day.

Tonight

Clear skies and calm winds tonight will allow for a pretty cold evening. Look for another generally light freeze with temperatures in the low-30s in the city and upper 20s in the suburbs. We could see some mid-20s in far north and northwest areas (Conroe to College Station).

Going to be a chilly night tonight! (Pivotal Weather)

Some patchy fog could develop Saturday morning as well up north. With temperatures below freezing, this could lead to a few icy patches on roads to the north of the Houston area. We aren’t expecting anything widespread, but this is something to just be aware of up north, mostly well away from the Houston Metro and suburbs.

Rest of the weekend

Saturday looks like a lovely winter’s day after any fog dissipates: Sunshine with highs in the 50s. It will be milder Saturday night with lows in the 30s and 40s as clouds move back in. Sunday is trending a bit wetter now with showers developing, especially south and east of Houston. I’m not ready to call it a washout, but it’s looking damp with perhaps up to a half-inch of rain at the coast and a quarter-inch inland. Highs will be in the mid to upper-50s.

Next week

We get a dose of somewhat cooler weather early in the week behind Sunday’s system, but it should only produce highs in the 50s and lows in the 30s. Just some more winter. A warming trend ensues later next week which should push high temps back into the 60s again. We are not expecting anything other than clouds and sun for most of the week right now. More cold weather may follow after next weekend, but it’s a bit soon to say just how cold that will be.

Hey Apple users: Your long national notification nightmare is (hopefully) over. Do this.

For quite a while now, a growing number of people who have the Space City Weather app on their iPhones, iPads and Macs have stopped getting notifications. (Android users were not having the same problem.) We mentioned this in last month’s SCW Q&A post, in which we admitted our bafflement..

Hussain Abbasi, our developer, has been banging his head against his monitor, trying to figure this out. The code for the app was doing what it was supposed to do, he said. He tried tweaks to the tool we use to send app notifications, without success. He took his time looking at different combinations of devices and operating system versions. Nothing he tried put an end to our frustration and your annoyance at not being alerted when a new item was posted.

But last week, Hussain noticed posts in user forums on the web indicating that other apps were having the same problem. And he learned that, with the release of iOS/iPadOS 18, Apple had made a change in the way notifications are handled. Our app’s code was doing what it was supposed to do, but things were different on Apple’s end.

Which brings us to a simple fix.

First, if you are no longer getting notifications from the SCW app on your Apple device, make sure you have notifications turned on. Tap the same 3-line menu you’d use to change cities, tap the gear icon upper right of the city picker, then choose Notifications. Make sure the toggle buttons for the notification types you want are on.

Here’s the Notifications setting page for the SCW app. Turn on all the alerts, except for Evacuate Katy. Whatever you do, don’t even try to turn that on.

If notifications are turned on and you haven’t been getting them, do this: Delete the app and reinstall it from the App Store. Apparently this re-registers it with Apple, and adopts the changes to the notification system.

If you have an iPhone, iPad or Mac with the app installed and you are still getting notifications, you need do nothing. However, if they suddenly stop coming, you now know what to do!

We have tested this with our own devices and it seems to work. But if for some reason it doesn’t work for you, make sure you have in place the latest version of your device’s operating system and that app notifications are turned on. Update your device if needed. Then try deleting the app, restarting the device, then reinstalling the app.

And if that doesn’t work, send us details from the Feedback feature, also in the SCW app’s settings. As always, thanks for reading Space City Weather and using our app! And to everyone who sent in Feedback reports about this issue, we appreciate you. They were a big help.

Update: Hey, look! It works!

Notification from the SCW app about this post. Hello, old friend! I’ve missed you!

Expect widespread showers today and tonight, but nothing too disruptive

In brief: A coastal low pressure system will bring (mostly) moderate rain showers into the Houston area today and tonight. Although we don’t expect any significant flooding, this will be a wet, windy, and dreary day and night. Friday is colder and windy, followed by sunnier conditions this weekend. Sunday looks rather nice with highs of about 60 degrees.

Thursday

After cold, northerly winds since Sunday evening, Houston’s pattern will now change somewhat today as winds shift to become more easterly. This is due to the presence of a coastal low pressure system that will bring increased rain chances today and tonight. Pretty much everyone will see rainfall, but how much, and when?

I think we’ll see an initial pulse of light to moderate showers this morning, with perhaps a slight reprieve during the middle of the day. The best chance of moderate or heavier showers will come later this afternoon, and especially during the evening as a slug of moisture moves up the coast from the southwest to northeast. We should then see the potential for moderate showers through the night, and possibly into the morning hours on Friday. The system should exit to the east between sunrise and noon on Friday.

Most of Houston is likely to pick up 1 to 3 inches of rainfall, and we could see some heavier bullseyes for coastal areas. I do not think these rains will cause any significant flooding issues, and therefore I am not putting a Stage 1 flood alert into place. Additionally, in the Houston metro area none of this will fall as freezing precipitation (the story could be different north of Huntsville or College Station). But do plan to take a little extra time out there because it will be fairly wet later today and tonight.

NOAA rainfall forecast for now through Friday morning. (Weather Bell)

Temperatures will be in the lower 50s closer to the coast, and in the 40s further inland. The cold weather will be compounded by a strong easterly wind which may, at times, gust as high as 30 mph. So all in all, not a fun day or evening to be outside.

Friday

After the coastal low departs, we’ll see increasing northwesterly winds, and this will usher in another push of colder and drier air. So Friday will be a cold day, with highs in the lower 40s, and breezy conditions adding some wind chill on top. As skies clear out we’ll see ideal conditions for cold weather on Friday night, and much of the Houston area should see one more freeze. It will be light in Houston, but some areas in Montgomery County and to the northwest of Houston may see a hard freeze.

Forecast low temperatures for Saturday morning. (Weather Bell)

Saturday and Sunday

After the chilly start, the rest of the weekend looks sunny and warmer. Highs on Saturday should reach about 50 degrees, with nighttime temperatures a few degrees above freezing in the metro area. Sunday will be mostly sunny and warmer, with highs of around 60 degrees. Time to get back in the pool?

Next week

Most of next week looks to be slightly warmer, with highs in the 50s to lower 60s, and low temperatures in the vicinity of 40 degrees. This is fairly typical weather for mid-January. We’ll see a mixture of clouds and sunshine. As we head toward next weekend highs may climb toward about 70 degrees. There’s still a fair bit of uncertainty about weather for the Houston Marathon on Sunday January 19, as it looks like a front will be trying to come through next weekend. Temperatures, and any rainfall, will depend on the timing and strength of that front. Right now I’d ballpark start line temperatures at about 50 degrees, but there remains a wide variance in possibilities.

Houston’s focus now shifts to a threat of heavy rainfall late Thursday and Friday near the coast

In brief: Houston is not done with the colder weather, but our low temperatures will now moderate slightly for the next couple of days. As a coastal low pressure system approaches we’ll see increased rain chances on Thursday, and the potential for heavy rainfall Thursday evening and during the overnight hours into Friday. Sunshine returns on Friday.

Wednesday

Temperatures, generally, are in the mid- to upper-30s across most of the Houston region this morning. This is due in part to increasing cloud cover, which will also limit high temperatures today to the lower 40s. It will still feel quite chilly outside, however, as winds from the north gust up to 20 mph. So although we’re done with freezing temperatures for a bit, the brisk conditions are not going away. Lows tonight will drop into the upper 30s again for much of the region.

NOAA rain accumulation forecast for now through Friday morning. (Weather Bell)

Thursday, Thursday night, and Friday morning

By Thursday morning we’ll start to see the possibility of light showers developing across Houston, and this pattern will continue through much of the day. With high temperatures in the mid-40s (even warmer near the coast) there is no threat of freezing rain or sleet in the Houston area. It appears as though the main impulse of showers and storms, due to a low-pressure system in the Gulf of Mexico, will move in on Thursday night. The best chance for heavy rain will therefore occur during the overnight hours, and closer to the coast. Much of the area is likely to pick up 2 to 4 inches of rainfall, with higher isolated totals possible. This system should push east of the area by Friday morning, (mostly) bringing an end to rain chances before noon.

Friday

Another pulse of colder and drier air will push in as the coastal low exits, and Friday looks to be a breezy and cool day with mostly cloudy skies and temperatures in the 40s. With skies likely to start clearing out on Friday night, expect a chilly night, with parts of Houston likely seeing a light freeze again, and far inland areas possibly experiencing a hard freeze.

Low temperature forecast for Saturday morning. (Weather Bell)

Saturday and Sunday

The weekend should bring mostly sunny and milder conditions back to Houston. Expect highs of around 50 degrees on Saturday. Lows on Saturday night should remain comfortably above freezing, with highs on Sunday possibly reaching as high as 60 degrees.

Next week

We’re not going to warm up much next week, with highs likely in the 50s and lows in the 40s. There’s still not a whole lot of clarity for the Houston Marathon forecast. I expect next Friday and Saturday to see a warming trend, but there’s a chance another front comes through by or before Sunday morning to cool things down. Of course a front could mean rain so yeah, the forecast remains uncertain.