One front is through the region, and now we wait for the big dog front later in the weekend. First, we do have some wind to get through today.
Today
With the front to our east now, changes will be afoot today. We barely dropped below 70 (!) overnight, but we just crept into the 60s as I write this, and by the time you read it, it may be in the 50s. It will be a chilly one by mid to late morning. We’ll hold near or just above 50 for the majority of the afternoon. But it will be the wind that’s the real story today. Wind Advisories are posted, and we can expect wind gusts of 30 to 35 mph in Houston, and into the 40s over the bays and along the coast.

Winds will subside toward sunset, with a quieter night ahead. Look for lows tonight in the 30s in much of the area away from the coast. A light freeze will be possible north of the city and in some of the more sheltered areas south, west, or east as well. Temps should not be any colder than we’ve already seen this winter.
Saturday
A fine day. Highs should be around 60 or in the lower-60s. A great day to finish your winterization preparations. And go Texans!
User’s guide to the Arctic cold
With our two posts per day now, we are aiming to update with each main cycle of model data that we are able to see. So there should be fewer big changes with each post. I’m going to change up this post a bit to sort of hit on the key points rather than give a chronological forecast. Here’s what we know.
Key messages
- Front hits Sunday morning ushering in cold (most areas well above freezing)
- Temps in the 30s to near 40 with an east or northeast 10 to 15 mph wind for the Houston Marathon.
- Light precipitation likely Monday and light icing on area roads is possible, especially north and west of Houston. Tuesday AM commute may be impacted in spots.
- Temperatures may stay at or below freezing much of the time Monday morning through Wednesday morning.
- Hard freeze temperatures (less than 25 degrees) would likely last 8 to 10 hours at a time in Houston on Monday night and Tuesday night.
- Wind chills will be as cold as 10 degrees or lower on Tuesday and in the teens much of Tuesday and Wednesday morning.
- We warm well above freezing on Wednesday, with highs near 60 by Thursday.
When does it start?
We need to think of this in two ways: When does it get generically cold and when do we see freezing temperatures? The answer to “when does it get generically cold” is coming into focus. The front looks to hit probably Sunday right around sunrise now. Temperatures in the 40s will probably drop back into the 30s as the front hits, with a light freeze possible north of about The Woodlands on Sunday morning.

The rest of Sunday would be cold but dry with temps in the 30s. A widespread light to moderate freeze is possible Sunday night into Monday morning. A more consequential freeze is possible Monday night into Tuesday morning, with temperatures in the 20s probably everywhere but at the coast, struggling to get above freezing on Tuesday afternoon. And then the coldest on Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. Thankfully, we should bounce back well into the 40s on Wednesday afternoon.

This obviously brings up a couple additional questions.
How bad is the Houston Marathon going to be?
The answer to that question depends on your preference I suppose. I would expect temperatures perhaps dropping as runners are in motion. We may start in the 40s and drop into the 30s or start in the 30s and hold steady throughout. The wind? It doesn’t look horrific, but it doesn’t look great either. We expect northeast to east winds of 10 to 15 mph or so. There will certainly be some gusts near 20 mph at times in there as well. The more meaningful wind should thankfully hold off until Monday or Tuesday.
How cold will it get and for how long?
You can see the chart above for IAH. Let’s answer a few different questions. In Houston, the absolute worst case scenario right now would be temperatures dropping below freezing on Monday morning and staying there through Wednesday morning. Bear in mind that these would be temperatures more in the low-30s Monday (instead of the low to mid-20s like we saw during the February 2021 freeze). A more reasonable scenario is that we poke above freezing for a bit on Monday, then drop back Monday night and stay there into Wednesday morning. The coldest stretches (temperatures of 25 degrees or colder) will probably be limited to 8 to 10 hours at a time Tuesday and Wednesday mornings.

With gusty winds likely on Monday and especially Tuesday, look for wind chill values to drop into the teens much of the time, and at least for a time perhaps in the single digits. This is dangerous cold for pets and people outside, so please make sure to bring in the pets and check on anyone vulnerable to cold exposure.
Will there be wintry precipitation?
A disturbance passing over top of the cold air looks likely on Monday now. This will likely produce 12 to 24 hours of light precipitation across the area. With temperatures hovering near freezing, yes, that means we could see some freezing drizzle or light freezing rain as that precipitation moves through. There’s good news and bad news here. The good news is that amounts look light. So this isn’t going to be an all-out ice storm with lots of power outages due to ice buildup.
The bad news is that any amount of ice can make travel difficult. Monday is a holiday so there will be fewer people on the road already. That’s good news, but if for whatever reason you have to go out on Monday, please check on area roads before you leave. DriveTexas.org is a good resource to have. The Houston TranStar website will show you areas of ice. While there is still uncertainty on exactly how cold it will be Monday, it will be close enough to freezing to think that at least patchy ice will be possible on area roads, especially north and west of Houston and on freeway flyovers.
We don’t want to get into the prediction of traffic or school closures, but yes, you will want to pay attention to how things evolve this weekend for going to back to school or work on Tuesday, as Monday’s conditions could directly impact Tuesday’s commute too.
Will my flight be impacted?
We don’t predict airline behavior here, but yes, probably at some point Bush and Hobby will have some issues, but hopefully nothing major.
When does it end?
As you can see from the temperature forecast above, once we get above freezing on Wednesday morning, we are probably going to stay there into Thursday, with temperatures even near 60 degrees possible! Colder weather should come back next weekend, but it will likely be milder than we will see early next week. We will have more, including a broader look at Texas during this freeze event later today.
