Eric Berger

Houston emerges from a freeze, more typical winter-like weather ahead

The northern half of Houston is seeing freezing conditions again this morning, but temperatures will soon warm up today. For the first time in 2018, the region should see highs reach the 50 degree mark—still about 15 degrees below normal for this time of year. The warming trend will continue through the weekend before a moderately strong cool front arrives.

Thursday and Friday

Amazingly, the warming trend doesn’t mean we’re entirely out of the woods for some frozen precipitation. Thursday will see mostly sunny skies, and a cool but pleasant day. Overnight lows should fall into the mid- to upper-30s tonight, and a weak atmospheric disturbance could bring some clouds tonight and early Friday morning, and with this some very spotty sleet or cold rain is possible to the west and southwest of Houston.

Houston will see one more really cold night on Thursday night. (National Weather Service)

However, since the ground will remain above freezing we don’t anticipate any effects and, indeed, I don’t think most people will see anything. Friday itself should be a great day, with sunny skies and highs in the mid-50s.

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Houston Marathon forecast at 10.5 days: Looking good, for now

With a little more than 10 days to go, we’re still in the realm of considerable uncertainty about the forecast for the 2018 Houston Marathon, but the good news is that the forecast remains fairly consistent from model run to model run. This can give us some small confidence that weather for the marathon will be a bit cooler than normal.

On Tuesday I discussed the use of ensembles, and for the sake of comparison I’ve looked at each individual member of the European ensemble (12z) run from today to determine what kind of temperature anomaly is forecast for the morning of Sunday, January 14th. Broken down by percentages, here’s what we have today:

Warm: 26 percent

Normal: 8 percent

Cold: 64 percent

Very cold: 4 percent

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A special announcement about our 2018 site sponsor

After 2017 in Houston, which featured everything from the costliest hurricane to ever strike the United States to a rare December snow, we can hardly guess what the near year will bring. (Certainly, we can be relatively confident in heat and humidity). Whatever this way comes, be it snow, rain, or intense heat, we’d like you to know that Space City Weather will be here every step of the way.

And that is why I am so thrilled to announce today that our sponsor during last year’s hurricane season, Reliant, has stepped forward to support the site for all of 2018. The company, and its president Elizabeth Killinger, believe strongly in the value we bring to to the Houston community, and they wanted to support our efforts. That means two important things for readers of Space City Weather.

One, we will have no outside advertising on the site. None. No auto-play videos. No pop-ups. Just a clean interface. This should make for lightning fast load times. Perhaps most importantly, it means we do not have to generate clicks for the sake of clicks. We don’t need to clickbait you because the value of our site isn’t determined by traffic. So if there’s not much to say about a 95-degree day in August, we won’t waste your time (or ours) by saying much.

Two, neither Matt nor I has much of a background in business or marketing. We’re scientists. We’re meteorologists. We’re writers. We just want to inform, entertain, and help you make decisions about weather and your lives. To that extent, having Reliant sponsor the site for all of this year means we can focus on weather, and pay with bills, with a minimum of distraction.

Finally, let me just say that I’m personally pleased that Reliant is back. Their very name is part of the ethos of this site. We aspire to provide a source of reliable information about weather in the greater Houston area. They’re a reliable provider of electricity and home services to the same market. It’s a great match for the new year.

This is the worst of this Arctic spell for Houston—we warm now

Houston saw some scattered light snow and sleet on Tuesday evening, but drier air at low levels of the atmosphere prevented more widespread coverage. After this system moved out of the area, skies began to clear from west to east across the region after midnight and this allowed for very cold temperatures to settle into southeast Texas. As of 6:30am CT, lows range from about 20 degrees in College Station, to 25 in the city of Houston, to 30 degrees in Galveston. Up north, this is nothing. But for Houston, this is very cold—with many sites tying or breaking record low temperatures for January 3. If you’re tired of this, there’s good news. We’ve seen the worst of it now.

When you look at forecast low temperatures for Wednesday morning, suddenly the mid-20s doesn’t seem all that bad. (Pivotal Weather)

Wednesday through Friday

One big thing happens today: full sunshine returns to Houston. It’s been awhile. But the next three days should see nearly continuous sunshine during the daytime hours. This will allow for a sloooow warming trend, from highs today in the low 40s to the low 50s by Friday. Overnight lows, too, should climb from around 30 degrees Wednesday night to about 40 degrees by Friday night.

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