It’s cold—but not extremely cold—across the Houston region this morning. Although wind chill temperatures are in the teens, the mercury has generally remained in the upper 20s for most of Houston during the overnight hours due to persistent cloud cover that has helped the surface retain some of its heat. That should change Tuesday night, with clearer skies allowing for colder overnight temperatures.
Tuesday
On New Year’s Day, the high of just 41 degrees gave Houston its coldest daytime temperature since Jan. 10, 2015. We’ll probably be colder today as skies remain partly to mostly cloudy for Houston, and limit highs to the upper 30s. For coastal areas, there is also a slight chance of sleet today, but we aren’t worried about any kind of freezing precipitation accumulation. For one, much of the sleet is likely to evaporate before reaching the ground. And secondly, temperatures along the coast will be sufficiently above freezing today.
As skies clear across the region tonight we’ll see ideal weather for radiational cooling, and this is when we expect to see very cold overnight lows ranging from about 20 degrees for far inland areas to 30 degrees along the coast. Houston’s record low temperatures for January 3rd is 25 degrees, and I believe we will definitely threaten that at Bush Intercontinental Airport.
