Tornado Watch until 4 PM for most of Houston

The National Weather Service has gone ahead and posted a Tornado Watch for most of Metro Houston until 4 PM. It includes the City of Houston and points north and west. The watch does *not* include Matagorda, Brazoria, Galveston, or Chambers Counties. Everyone else, however, is under the watch. A Tornado Watch means that the atmospheric conditions are favorable for severe thunderstorms that could produce tornadoes over the next several hours. The best chance of tornadic storms will be north of I-10, but I would advise that if you live in Houston, keep an eye on the weather.

A Tornado Watch includes most of Southeast Texas through 4 PM. (NOAA)
A Tornado Watch includes most of Southeast Texas through 4 PM. (NOAA)

Showers and thunderstorms have been impacting the area mostly west of I-45 and north of I-10 all morning. Thus far, everything has behaved nicely. That may begin to change as the cold front edges closer and we turn warmer and more unstable.

Obviously, with the tragic tornado event in the Dallas area last night, many folks will be a little extra on edge today. While the setup here in Southeast Texas is not as robust as it was in Dallas yesterday, it is still quite conducive for strong to severe thunderstorms and definitely the possibility of a few tornadoes. Whether you’re under the watch or not, you’ll want to have a method to receive weather warnings today and if a Tornado Warning is posted for your location, have a designated place to shelter in. No reason to panic, but certainly best to be prepared. We’ll be monitoring things throughout the day.

A little more autumn weather through Saturday

So another winner of a day is on tap for Friday: Lots of sun and highs actually a couple degrees cooler than we saw yesterday. Saturday should be similarly nice, with just a few high clouds perhaps later in the day and highs in the low 60s.

SUNDAY

No real serious weather worries are expected here, but we will start to notice significant changes. Dewpoints should slowly creep up from the 50s into the lower 60s later Sunday. We’ll also add a good bit of cloud cover to the mix with temperatures back up near 70°.

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Flashback Friday: Back to the 80s

On Thursday, we maxed out at 78° officially at Bush Airport and 80° at Hobby. If you thought yesterday was warm, wait until today.

TODAY

I’m not sure what the split is going to be on today’s weather, but I imagine about 50% of you will love it and 50% of you will loathe it. It’s going to feel like more like early to mid-fall than almost winter: High humidity and very warm temperatures. We should be able to officially slide past 80° this afternoon for the first time since November 16th. Hey, at least we aren’t Laredo, which should test 90° this afternoon! Aside from warmth, it will be dry with a mix of clouds and sun.

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All the sunshine

If you liked the original episode of “Sunny and Cool December Day,” you will love the rerun that will air today.

TODAY-TUESDAY

As Eric has been laying out, this is a pretty straightforward, almost boring weather pattern that we are lodged in. Boring weather is a very, very good thing right now. Houston gets “all” the sunshine. We still have another weak and dry cold front projected to move through later this weekend. You may notice a wind shift or a few extra clouds ahead of it and with it Saturday into Sunday morning. Aside from that, it’ll be tough to differentiate each day over the next five to six days: Lows generally in the 40s in Houston (30s in some outlying areas), with highs in the 60s.

Saturday morning will be another chilly one across Southeast Texas. (Weather Bell)
Saturday morning will be another chilly one across Southeast Texas. (Weather Bell)

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