Eric Berger

Good morning. Before jumping into today’s post, I want to thank our long-time sponsor, Reliant, for their kind words about our new Atlantic hurricanes site, The Eyewall. Please check out their message at the end of this post, which has some good ideas about preparing for the 2023 Atlantic season in Houston. As a reminder, Reliant has sponsored Space City Weather since 2017—helping us keep the lights on literally and figuratively.

Tuesday

Following fairly widespread storms on Monday, the atmosphere remains disturbed today. As a result we should see another round of showers and thunderstorms during the afternoon hours today. However, I think coverage and intensity will be a bit less, with perhaps 50 percent of the region seeing rainfall. Partly to mostly cloudy skies this afternoon should limit high temperatures into the mid- to upper-80s. Winds, outside of thunderstorms, should be light. Lows tonight will drop to around 70 degrees.

Wednesday

This will be a bit of a transition day, with some scattered showers and thunderstorms, and partly sunny skies. Look for high temperatures near 90 degrees.

Thursday and Friday

As high pressure moves in, temperatures will go up. And truth be told, we’re going to flip a switch and go into full-on summer, with mostly sunny skies and highs in the mid-90s. Nighttime temperatures will be noticeably warmer too, bumping up into the mid-70s with that sultry humidity you know and either love or loathe. (Yes, some people do love the Houston humidity). Rain chances each day will be about 10 percent with the afternoon sea breeze.

Saturday and Sunday

More of the same. We’re taking highs in the mid-90s, sunny skies, and humidity.

Next week

Not to end this forecast on too much of a downer, but there is some question about how much hotter it might get next week. The upper 90s, probably. It’s a tiny bit early for 100-degree heat, but certainly not unprecedented. It will feel like a blowtorch regardless. Welcome to summer 2023, y’all.

Sponsor message

Congratulations to Eric and Matt on the launch of The Eyewall to bring the same no-hype forecasts we value so much here in Houston and Southeast Texas to even more coastal residents. At Reliant, we’re honored to have supported Space City Weather since 2017, keeping the site free and available to everyone year-round! Along with our fellow Houstonians and local businesses, their forecasts keep us informed and prepared in both calm and stormy weather.

As we’ve now officially entered the 2023 hurricane season, we want to remind readers that Reliant stands ready to support Texans and help prepare for any storms that come our way. Especially early in the season, it’s important to take the time to protect your family, home, and business in advance. Reliant’s Severe Weather Prep Checklist is a good place to start.

Here are a few other tips to keep in mind as you prepare:

• Reliant offers a wide range of backup energy solutions to help you ride out the storm. Have power at the ready — at home or on the go — with Goal Zero portable charging products. They can charge everything from phones to fridges and even life-sustaining medical devices.
• Be prepared in case of an electricity outage. Your utility company (like CenterPoint in the Houston area) maintains the power lines, utility poles, and other electricity infrastructure necessary to deliver the power you purchase from Reliant to your home. Contact your utility company to report an outage or check the status of a repair.
• Check out more preparedness tips and recovery resources at ReliantStormCenter.com. The site provides resources for before, during, and after a storm, including preparedness checklists and evacuation routes, weather and power outage updates, flood maps, safety tips, and more.

Just like the summer heat, storms are a part of life in Texas, so being prepared is critical. Like everyone else, we are hopeful this season will be a quiet one, but come what may, Reliant and Space City Weather will be here for you.

Good morning. So far we have eased into summertime this year. For the entire month of May, temperatures ended up slightly below normal. And the first several days of June trended cooler as well. That party, I am sorry to say, should end this week.

By Thursday or Friday, as high pressure builds over the region with a warm southerly flow, I expect high temperatures to reach the mid-90s and stay there for awhile. This will be the beginning of what I like to call “Mid summer” in Houston, the second of our four phases of summer.

Monday

But we’re not there yet. In the absence of high pressure, and with a moderately disturbed atmosphere, we’ll see decent rain chances for the next few days. The potential for showers and thunderstorms will be highest today, with 60 to 70 percent coverage during the afternoon and early evening hours in Houston. Rainfall amounts will be highly variable, but on average most locations should pick up 0.25 to 1 inch of rain, with perhaps areas south of Interstate 10 seeing slightly higher accumulations. As these storms may be hitting about during rush hour, take a little extra care in getting home this evening. These showers, along with mostly cloudy skies, should limit highs to the upper 80s. Rain chances are lower overnight, with lows falling to around 70 degrees.

Tuesday

This day should be similar to Monday, in terms of showers popping up during the afternoon hours. However, I expect less coverage of storms. Skies will be also be partly sunny, so highs may nudge up to 90 degrees in some locations.

Wednesday

This is a bit of a transition day. We’ll still see some showers, but as we’re moving to a hotter and less rainy pattern, look for partly to mostly sunny skies and highs in the low 90s.

Thursday and Friday

Rain chances will fall back to about 20 percent each day, with just a slight chance of a sea breeze shower in the afternoon. Otherwise expect mostly sunny skies and highs in the low to mid-90s.

Saturday, Sunday, and beyond

The forecast period from this weekend into the middle of next week simply looks mostly sunny and hot, with high temperatures in the mid-90s. While we can’t entirely rule out rain chances, the pattern does not look to produce much in the way of precipitation. As I said at the outset, summer proper is on the way.

Good morning. Just jumping in here with a quick Sunday morning update. Yes, a line of fairly strong thunderstorms moved through the Houston area during the overnight hours. No, we did not anticipate them being quite so strong, or arriving quite so early. Sorry for the late-night wake-up call.

The good news is that the overnight storms sapped the atmosphere of much of its energy, and this should lessen thunderstorm activity today. I would expect mostly cloudy skies to prevail, with highs of about 90 degrees or just above, and moderate to high humidity. Your overall chances of seeing a shower or a thunderstorm this afternoon is probably about 30 percent. These rain chances will continue this evening, and during the overnight hours, but at this point I don’t see much sign of a similar flare-up of storms late tonight like the region experienced on Saturday night.

With that being said, the overall pattern this week favors additional showers and thunderstorms through about Wednesday, as disturbances move down from the north into our region. I don’t have much confidence right now in whether these will occur during the daytime, along with atmospheric heating, or at nighttime. Rain chances will go down, and temperatures up, toward the end of the week.

More tomorrow.

Good morning. Today marks the beginning of the Atlantic hurricane season, which will last for the next six months. It’s also a big day for Matt and myself, as we’re launching a new website devoted to tropical weather in the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean Sea. It’s called The Eyewall, and you can head over there now to check it out, and find out more information about what we’re doing. But I’m sure some readers will have questions about what this means for Space City Weather, and that’s what I’m going to address now.

Is Space City Weather going to change?

No.

Like not at all?

Like not at all. Matt and I are 100 percent committed to Space City Weather, and improving it every way we can. To that end, look for an updated version of our app soon, that squashes some bugs and delivers the much-asked for dark mode feature in addition to other goodies.

Why are you doing this?

There are two primary reasons. One, much of the current national hurricane coverage is sensationalized, and we think there is room for a different, no-hype approach. And two, we are frequently asked for local sites during hurricane season. (I.e. my mom is in Destin, where can she get this kind of coverage for Tropical Storm X or Hurricane Y) Well, now we’ve got an answer. We’re counting on you to tell friends and family beyond Texas.

Will there be cross-over between the two sites?

A little bit. The Eyewall will publish a “Daily Tropical Outlook” every weekday, and weekends as needed. There will be other hurricane content as well, and lots of coverage of active storms threatening land. Once a week we will cross-publish one of these “tropical outlooks” on Space City Weather (i.e. like with our weekly tropics report).

What happens if a hurricane threatens Texas?

For Space City Weather we cover the storm as usual. The local material would then be cross-posted onto The Eyewall. But our intent is that for readers of Space City Weather there will be no noticeable changes. We will not be publishing content from the Eyewall about storms affecting other parts of the country, or Mexico and the Caribbean Islands here, although we may link to it from time to time on Space City Weather.

Do you have a sponsor?

Not yet. Really, this is an experiment. Matt is taking on a big extra burden with this, and while we’re going to have some contributors, we want to see if this is sustainable. We also want to see if there are readers for this. Maybe it flops. Maybe it doesn’t. Really, we just want to give people some comfort in a terribly trying and traumatic time in their lives. We’ll see.

Now, onto the forecast…

Thursday

Our weather for the next few days will be guided by a modestly strong ridge of high pressure. This means we’re going to see warm and sunny weather. Highs today should reach about 90 degrees, with light southeast winds. One nice aspect of the weather is that dewpoints have not reached hair-melting levels yet, so the humidity won’t be oppressive. Lows tonight drop into the low 70s. Rain chances today are about 10 percent.

Friday

A little warmer, with highs in the low 90s. Otherwise, pretty much the same as Thursday.

Saturday

Another day with mostly sunny skies and highs in the low 90s. For areas far north of Houston, likely even north of Conroe, there is a slight chance of some rain showers later in the day.

Sunday and Monday

As high pressure eases off, skies will become more cloudy in response to rising atmospheric moisture levels, and our rain chances will go up. Both Sunday and Monday should see about a 50 percent chance of rainfall, with accumulations in the order of 0.25 to 1 inch. Overall chances are probably a bit higher north of Interstate 10, but this far out I don’t have great confidence in that. The clouds should bring highs back down to around 90 degrees on both days.

Later next week

Rain chances continue for a few more days, helping to tamp down high temperatures. But it’s possible that we’re headed toward the low- or even mid-90s by later next week. Hello, June!