Tropical moisture will surge into Texas this weekend

Cooler and significantly wetter weather remains on tap for the weekend—at this point Sunday looks like the wettest day—but with a disorganized tropical system moving into Mexico we don’t see any signal yet for widespread, significant flooding. So we’re watchful, but not overly concerned at this point. If you’ve been following along with Matt’s updates this week, you pretty much know what to expect.

Thursday and Friday

Houston endured highs of 97 degrees on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, and that trend should pretty much continue to end the work week. Warm days will be punctuated with isolated to scattered showers, some of which can be intense as we saw with some storms near Tomball on Wednesday evening. But for the most part, conditions will just be hot and partly to mostly sunny.

Tropical disturbance

We continue to think the tropical disturbance now moving over the Yucatan Peninsula, which will move westward into the Bay of Campeche and likely into northern Mexico, will not develop. That means that the primary threat from the system remains tropical moisture, which should spread into Texas this weekend.

The National Hurricane Center gives the tropical disturbance a 0 percent chance of developing during the next 2 days, and a 10 percent chance the next 5 days. (National Hurricane Center)

The key question is where the greatest amount of moisture will surge inland, and unfortunately we can’t say this with any precision. Will it be Houston? Beaumont? Victoria? We just can’t tell you yet. With that in mind, here’s our best stab at forecast conditions for this weekend.

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Hot and humid, with maybe a pattern change next week

Hot and humid weather will continue for awhile across the region. We won’t see anything too extreme heat wise, but temperatures remain a few degrees above normal for this time of year. We’re also continuing to watch for a pattern change later next week that may cool us down ever so slightly and could bring wetter conditions to the area.

For now, however, the forecast is pretty dull.

As of Thursday morning, lows aren’t too extreme yet over the southeastern Texas, but wait a month or two. (Weather Bell)

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday

With Houston on the periphery of high pressure, our weather is more or less locked in with temperatures in the low- to mid-90s, partly to mostly sunny skies, and perhaps a few isolated showers during the afternoon and evening hours. Nights will remain warm, in the mid-70s.

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Houston starts June with sizzling weather

As summer continues in Houston, so do the warmer temperatures. According to the National Weather Service, through the first five days of this month, Houston has had its second warmest start to a June on record, and Galveston its third warmest. I wish I could tell you that we’re going to see significant relief from the heat in the days ahead, but this is a reality-based website. So, nah. At best we’ll probably fall back a couple of degrees closer to normal temperatures.

Houston hasn’t been record hot to start June, but we’ve been well above normal highs and lows. (National Weather Service)

Wednesday

We have an interesting weather pattern across the region today that may just allow some areas to see some needed rain showers. Unsettled weather off to our southeast, and northeast, may slide back toward the region later this morning. As the region heats up today I think we’re going to see some scattered showers in the vicinity of Houston, which should be a bit more likely to the east of Interstate 45. Rain chances are probably only in the 20 to 30 percent range, but that is certainly better than the next two days. Highs should remain in the mid-90s. Any showers should end this evening, with the loss of daytime heating.

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Storms well north of Houston today, better rain chances Wednesday

With highs generally in the mid-90s, and lows in the upper-70s, temperatures so far this month are running about 5 degrees above normal for early June. We’re probably going to remain in this warmer-than-normal pattern for about another week before we see the potential for temperatures to back off some next week, and rain chances to increase.

Tuesday

Some storms will be possible today, but like on Monday pretty much all of the action should be north-northeast of the region because that’s where the atmospheric disturbances will be most pronounced. The following forecast from the HRRR model is representative of this kind of thinking, showing the potential for isolated, but very gusty storms.

Some isolated storms are likely today well north of Houston. (Weather.us)

I think, for the most part, we can simply expect another mostly sunny and hot day in Houston, with high temperatures around 95 for most of the area and a few degrees cooler right along the coast.

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