Eric Berger

Quick Sunday update on Houston’s weather, and our new server

We took advantage of a slow Sunday morning to move Space City Weather to a new server, which should load even faster than before, and which should allow us to weather any traffic spikes during major storms. We were able to make this significant investment thanks to the generosity of our readers during last month’s fundraiser, as well as Reliant’s ongoing support. Please, if you notice any problems, use the feedback form to let us know. (More server specs in a minute).

As for the New Year’s Eve forecast, it’s more or less on track. Above a small envelope of cool air at the surface, moisture from the Gulf of Mexico is streaming into the atmosphere above the upper Texas coast. The net effect of this is going to be on-again, off-again, light to moderate rainfall on Sunday, Sunday night, and Monday morning. Most of the region should see 1 inch or less of rain, so we don’t anticipate any problems.

NOAA rain accumulation forecast for now through New Year’s Day. (Pivotal Weather)

Fortunately, the rainfall should end by or before noon on New Year’s Eve, and we could see partly sunny skies with highs in the low 60s later in the day. As for the countdown to midnight, we expect partially clearing skies, with temperatures around 50 degrees and light winds. All in all, this is fairly good weather for New Year’s Eve festivities, so enjoy the celebrations.

As for our new server, we were fortunate to have Lee Hutchinson (a friend, and co-worker of mine at Ars Technica) do all of the back-end work for us. According to Lee, here are the details about our new server:

Space City Weather is now running on its own dedicated server, with no co-tenants and no sharing of anything. The box is a quad-core Intel Xeon E3-1230 with 16GB of RAM and dual 480GB SSDs in a RAID1 mirror, connected to the Internet via a dedicated 1Gbps uplink. We have plenty of room to grow and should be reasonably future-proof for at least the next several years.

Thanks again to all of our readers who supported us, and shared our site in 2018. We promise to deliver more of the same next year, with a site re-design and flood scale coming in the near future.

Storms ending, cooler weather to close out 2018 for Houston

Good morning! The worst of Wednesday night’s and Thursday’s morning’s thunderstorms are now moving eastward, and the remainder of the storms should be off the coast by around 10 or 11am this morning. After several days of 70-degree weather, winter should now feel more like winter in the greater Houston area.

Thursday

Storms on Wednesday and Thursday brought a healthy amount of rain, with 1-3 inches generally, and a few reports of damaging winds. This morning, there are a few high-water sites on area roadways, but for the most part no major concerns. Temperatures have fallen into the mid-50s as the front moves through, and as rains end later this morning, we should see some clearing skies later this afternoon that will allow highs to get up to about 70 degrees. Lows tonight should drop down to about 50 degrees.

Friday morning forecast low temperatures. (NOAA)

Friday

This still looks to be the pick of the litter for this week, and perhaps next as well. Look for highs in the mid-60s, with mostly sunny skies, and light winds. This will probably be the last time we really see the Sun in 2018.

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Storms possible Wednesday night, with winds and heavy rain

After rather sedate weather on Christmas Day, Houston will fall into a more dynamic weather pattern beginning later on Wednesday, with a front tonight and some potentially severe storms. No one wants a system like this, but at least it’s likely to strike during the overnight hours when most people are at home rather than out and about.

Wednesday

Temperatures are warm and muggy this morning, generally in the low 60s, which is more typical for highs this time of year rather than lows. Some showers and a few thunderstorms will be possible later this morning and this afternoon, but we’re not too concerned about accumulations (probably one-half inch or less for most areas). Highs today will probably top out at about 70 degrees under cloudy skies.

Severe weather outlook for Wednesday and Wednesday night. (NOAA)

After any daytime showers, we think there probably will be diminished rain chances this evening through at least about midnight. However, after that time a line of (likely) strong showers and thunderstorms will sweep from west to east, ahead of a cold front. It seems likely the line of storms will reach the College Station area between midnight and 3am, and push through the Houston area between 3am and 6am. The storms should be clearing the area by around sunrise or shortly thereafter. The primary threat is damaging winds, with a lesser threat of tornadoes (which should be short-lived).

In terms of rainfall, I don’t have a great amount of confidence in the forecast. A lot of models show a fairly progressive system, that should limit accumulations to 1-2 inches for most of the metro area. On the other hand, a few models are showing 2-4 inches, and several recent rain events have out-performed the model forecasts. My best guess is for 1-3 inches today and tonight, with higher isolated totals of 5 inches possible. The threat of heavier rain is generally to the north and west of metro Houston.

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Storms possible Wednesday night, cooler for the weekend

On this Christmas Eve morning, I want to take a moment to thank all the people who work in retail, at restaurants, deliver packages and perform other services during the long holiday hours. This is hard work, especially at this very hectic time. Thank you.

Monday

Our clear skies—that Moon has been something else the last few nights—will now give way to partly to mostly cloudy skies for most of this week. The culprit is the weak cold front that eased through Houston early on Sunday. After moving offshore it stalled, and it is now moving back onshore as  “warm” front. This will help set the stage for warmer, and more humid weather until later Thursday.

We should still see some sunshine today, and highs probably will get up into the mid- to upper-60s with easterly winds. But by this afternoon or evening, skies should turn mostly cloudy, and I only expect areas well away from the coast to fall below 60 degrees.

Christmas Day high temperatures. (National Weather Service)

Christmas Day

The holiday will dawn warm and gray, with some fog possible as warm air moves over the ground. The day may be fairly dreary, with light, spotty showers possible and 99 to 100 percent cloud cover. Highs probably will get into the low 70s, despite the clouds, which is really quite warm for a December day without direct sunshine. Is there any good news? The only real good news is that stormy weather will hold off until at least Wednesday.

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