And … welcome back to August, Houston.

After a relatively cool and wet first week of our region’s hottest month, we now return you to your regular August programming, Houston. That’s right, high pressure is building, and temperatures are rising.

Thursday and Friday

Skies will become partly sunny to end the work week, and this will allow for warmer days, with highs in the lower 90s near the coast, mid-90s in Houston, and upper 90s for areas further inland. The sea breeze should be strong enough to produce some scattered showers during the afternoon and evening hours, but except for some isolated downpours, I don’t expect accumulations to be too significant. With the humidity, heat index values will be very high, likely above 105 degrees, so please take care outdoors during the warmest part of the day.

Saturday and Sunday

Rain chances should fall back to near zero over the weekend, with highs remaining about the same under partly to mostly sunny skies. This will be a classic August weekend in Houston so if you can manage it, the best outdoor activities will involve some sort of water or other means to cool down. Fortunately the moist ground from our recent rainfall should keep highs in the mid-90s in Houston, rather than the upper 90s, but this is a small consolation.

Next week

The forecast models don’t show much of a change heading into next week, with high pressure more or less in control of the region’s weather. The possibility of some sea breeze showers returns next week, but I don’t see any kind of organized rain showers. So yeah, hot and sunny for the most part.

Eclipse

As most everyone knows, a total eclipse will span the lower 48 states on August 21, 2017. Unfortunately, Houston will lie outside the path of totality, but still should see about 75 percent of the Sun’s surface covered by the Moon, leaving a fairly narrow crescent. (Eclipse glasses are a must. Here is a list of sources to buy safe glasses from).

To that end, we’ll be providing forecasts for cloud cover during the time of the eclipse, although at 11 days out these are anything but high-confidence forecasts. Climatologically, Houston has about a 50 percent chance of clear skies in mid-August during the middle of the day. Right now, the forecast looks better than that, so I’d guess Houston has a 50 to 75 percent chance of clear skies during the eclipse.

Posted at 7:30am CT on Thursday by Eric