Matt Lanza

Yesterday was Thirsty Thursday in parts of the Houston area. While the coverage of showers and storms was a bit less than Wednesday, some pretty heavy rain fell in spots, even leading to some street flooding. On the map below, the teal color is generally about an inch, green is an inch and a half, and pink/blue starts ratcheting up to 2 to 3 inches. Obviously, the hardest hit areas yesterday were in parts of Fort Bend County, Sharpstown, Bellaire, West U, and close to Pasadena.

We remain in drought, however. In fact, as of Tuesday, extreme drought had expanded to cover half of the Houston region.

These showers aren’t heavy enough over a wide enough area to really seriously dent the drought, but they offer considerable short-term relief. Hopefully we can get some more.

Today

Coverage of showers should be similar to more extensive than Thursday. We have a little extra help today coming courtesy of a little disturbance moving west across the Gulf. Like yesterday, generally slow moving showers could lead to a quick inch or two or even a bit more in spots. Plenty of places won’t see rain today. Outside of the storms, mid to upper-90s once more.

Weekend

I do think we’ll see a noticeable decrease in shower coverage this weekend. We’re sort of at the mercy of exactly how an upper level system tracks, currently expected to pass offshore far enough to sort of “rob” what’s needed for showers. A few places could see an isolated storm or two, especially on Sunday. Additionally, look for some haze, courtesy of Saharan dust. Mid to upper-90s should dominate for highs, with 70s for lows.

Next week

Rain chances should bounce back a little bit on Monday again, before diminishing Tuesday and perhaps Wednesday and Thursday as high pressure settles in overhead.

By the end of the week, there are a few more questions. With high pressure expected to anchor in North Texas, Oklahoma, or Kansas this should keep us hot and humid, but it may be just far enough away to keep the door cracked each day for shower and storm chances. More on that next week.

The heat will be with us though with mid to upper-90s each day. We’ll have a couple shots at 100+ here or there too, but I’d expect to see more 98s and 99s. Does it matter? Not really, but it’s something I guess. More Monday!

We certainly remain in drought in our area, but before Wednesday, only a handful of areas saw a fair bit of rain. Yesterday, the dynamic changed a bit, as a large chunk of the area saw a moderate amount of rain. Gray colors on the map below indicate about an inch or less, while blue coloring indicates up to 1.75″ or so of rain.

This was definitely needed! We will have additional opportunities in our future.

App issues

First, some quick housekeeping. We’ve received many reports from all of you on the issues of the app crashing. Thank you for your reports! Eric and I are sort of in flux this week, so it’s been a little trickier to address promptly. But, we have fixes in. Android users should be able to download an updated version now. iPhone users should have the update shortly. Check out the App Store later today. It will be version 1.5.156.

If you still have issues, please shoot an email to us ([email protected]) and let us know what’s up. Thanks for your patience.

Today

Since there’s almost always at least a chance of rain in Texas in summer, I like trying to explain how rainfall coverage will behave this time of year as compared to the day prior. The triggering mechanism for yesterday’s storms should be out of the area today, so my guess is we will see a bit less coverage than Wednesday. That could also mean that localized storms will dump slightly heavier rain. Either way, there’s definitely a chance of showers today almost anywhere as we head toward afternoon (even this morning near the coast), so have an umbrella at the ready.

We hit 94 degrees yesterday, our coolest day since July 1st! We will probably manage mid to upper-90s today.

Friday

From the looks of model data, we may have another little upper level system that helps enhance showers and storms tomorrow. So coverage may be more like Wednesday than today. Look for highs generally in the mid-90s, or a bit hotter inland.

Saturday & Sunday

Shower coverage on both days should diminish some. I suspect Sunday may have just a slightly higher chance than Saturday. Whatever the case, look for sun, a few clouds, and a bit of a light Saharan haze around. Highs should be in the mid to upper-90s.

Next week

Monday looks fairly similar with slight rain chances, sun, clouds, and mid to upper-90s. There remains a good chance that we see hotter temps and lower rain chances return for Tuesday and beyond into later next week. More as we get closer.

Tropics

Things remain very quiet. We could see a slight uptick in activity chances emerge late next week or weekend near Central America, but it’s nothing that looks meaningful for our area right now.

Good morning! We’re back on schedule today. A quick housekeeping note: We are aware of some app and email issues. We’ll address those as soon as possible. Thankfully it’s a quiet week! Just as a reminder, for backup, you can follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, where we usually post daily.

On to the forecast.

Today

No one hit the Mega Millions on Tuesday, but we did have some local winners of the rainfall lottery! They included portions of southern Fort Bend County, the east side of Houston (Mason and Magnolia Park and Pleasantville), and just southwest of Alvin. It was more than one place like Monday, so you all split the jackpot. Congrats!

I think today will see a similar type setup, with a smattering of showers getting a few places wet. This will keep us slightly cooler again. We “only” hit 97 officially yesterday, so today should be similar, with mid to upper 90s across most of the area. Again, most of the area will be dry but at least a few neighborhoods could see an inch or two of rain.

Thursday

Tomorrow should be a lot like today, however it could be a notch or two hotter, with a few less showers. So maybe just a couple neighborhoods see showers tomorrow versus several today. Expect mid to upper 90s again.

Friday

We get a little more pop on Friday which should increase shower coverage closer to what we see today instead of Thursday. Again, most folks will still stay dry, but several neighborhoods should at least cash in on some rainfall.

So, if you want a quick guide to rainfall chances:

Wednesday: 30 percent
Thursday: 20 percent
Friday: 30 percent

Weekend

Both weekend days will see sun, clouds, and heat. Look for mid to upper 90s, again, on both days. Rain chances likely drop a bit compared to Friday, so I would call it 20 percent or less.

Next week

A return to hotter, drier weather seems likely as the week goes on, though I’d keep rain chances above zero each day at least. Instead of 20 to 30 percent odds like we have this week, perhaps it will be more like 10 to 20 percent odds next week. This will be especially true later in the week.

Will this ever end?

The update today is…not great. Obviously, model accuracy fades as you go later in time, but if you look at both the GFS and European ensemble forecasts for day 15, which takes us to August 10th, we see a pretty solid ridge over the Southern Plains.

It means that we will likely continue to persist with hotter than usual temperatures and fewer daily rain showers than usual into mid-August. So, no, I honestly can’t tell you when this will end.

Another week with a quiet Atlantic basin. No complaints here, though we really do need some rain.

Tropical outlook in a sentence

The Atlantic basin seems likely to stay mostly dormant for at least another week, as no reliable modeling is indicating any meaningful development anywhere at this time.

What gives?

Surely by now we should have had another system, right? Not necessarily. If we look at climatology, the fourth named storm of the season usually doesn’t occur until mid-August. So, we’re tracking in line with climatology. Of course, when the sales pitch coming into this season was for it to be another busy year, an average start may raise a few eyebrows. I still wouldn’t read too much into things at this point, and I would still almost certainly expect the season to finish busier than normal. But for now, just know that this isn’t out of bounds in terms of what is typical, even in active seasons.

Where to watch

While we see absolutely nothing in the models that suggests any sort of tropical development is likely over the next 2 weeks, a look at where storms have historically originated from August 1 through 10 is telling.

Two clusters stand out in the Atlantic: First, the Gulf and second just east of the Lesser Antilles. So if we wanted to look somewhere for tropical development over the next week or two, those would be good places to start. The Gulf is interesting because so many storms formed *in* the Gulf. In other words, you’re more like to get “homebrew” storms than long trackers right now. So while we believe things will be quiet over the next week or two, it’s always important for meteorologists to keep tabs on any thunderstorms that find their way into the Gulf for that reason.

The Gulf is warm — does it matter?

One question we’ve been getting more and more of lately is whether or not the hot weather this summer has led to the Gulf being abnormally warm. The answer is yes.

The Gulf is much warmer than usual virtually everywhere. It’s especially notable south of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and off the west coast of Florida. The thing about a warm Gulf, however, is that, while not great to see, it doesn’t overly concern us because a.) things can change quickly if the pattern were to change and b.) the Gulf is almost always going to be very supportive of tropical systems. In other words, it’s not a guarantee that we’re in for trouble this year. But it does give us some pause. Of course, tropical storms need more than just warm water. One of the best examples of a Texas storm that struggled despite a fairly warm Gulf was Tropical Storm Don in 2011. While the Gulf wasn’t quite as warm as it is this year, it was still warm. Don got absolutely annihilated by dry air due Texas’s drought, as well as wind shear. Then you get years like 2005 or 2020 where everything hits the warm Gulf and seems to explode. Again, not great but not a promise of ugly days ahead. We’ll of course keep watch!