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.

27 thoughts on “After a widespread soaking in the Houston area, cool, calm weather takes hold”

    • Houston has a BIG outdoor running party in the morning! The elite fields for both the half and the full look fantastic. Let’s hope for a great day of racing/running.

      • My bad. Big Houston running party is next Sunday. Running the half; you’d think I’d know this. Would be incredibly disappointing to show up downtown this Sunday.

        • How about for the non-elite party. Like those that casually arrive at the tale end of the party because they were too slow to get out of bed? (Or are just slow runners?) there was talk of rain a few days ago. Do I drag a rain jacket with me for this to be a transition day? 😭😭😭

          Okay. It’s too early for me to freak out that much. I know.

          • Yeah, a good question to be sure. I guess that’s individual. Even when I lived in the Pac NW, I never used a rain jacket. If rain seemed likely I would definitely use a snug base layer and wear a running cap. My working hypothesis was that you only get so wet and the rest just runs off. For me anyhow, if a jacket is truly waterproof, or highly water resistant, I’m going to sweat under it. Either way – I’m wet. So I fueled enough to help maintain core temp and just keep running. But this is something one can make a decision on the night before too. If pace of movement is such that maintaining core temp is an issue, then I’d certainly use a jacket.

    • “ Cloudy with showers. High 57F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%.

      And

      Rain showers early with overcast skies late. Low 43F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 60%.“ —

      per Weather Channel, Sunday the 12th. I hope that helps.

  2. The models are already putting out another arctic blast on January 20 and 21, however it can become widespread 80s the next model run as it is still 10 days out, even if they are currently unusually in agreement.

  3. Sorry to ask again, but potted plants back outside soon? I have one massive fiddle leaf fig and the rest are succs. What is everyone else doing? Saturday?

    • I kept my plants outside the whole time, just making sure to cover them with towels when temperatures dipped below 32°F overnight.

    • My potted plants are uncovered now since the beginning of the week. I won’t cover them again unless a deep freeze comes along. I live in west Houston so enough urban heat to keep us from freezing.
      My in the ground plants (uncovered) got hit though.
      I saw an American Goldfinch on my feeders this morning, the suet seemed to be the favourite.

  4. I’m loving this cold weather but I know that we are going to pay for this with 80s everyday in February probably.

  7. My current view – subject to change – is the background warming locally can only be a degree or so if most global warming is occurring inside the two arctic circles. You can’t have both. However, the GOA is warming from lack of aerosols – a lot of ships are queuing around down there and 2020 IMO regs have shut off the sulfur. So all in all, Houston weather is/will be delightful for warm lovers. Of which I’m one. .

  9. Berkeley Earth reported today that global warming was roughly ‘linear’ & consistent from the 1970s, until 2023/2024, where it shot up in a significant deviation. I hope it’s not the beginning of the slide towards exponential growth increase.

    • As another poster said, I’m fairly sure the biggest recent jump is from a lack of aerosols over the Atlantic ocean. Cleaning the sulfur in ship fuel had the unintended consequence of forming fewer clouds over the ocean to reflect radiant heat.

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