Matt Lanza

In brief: A high-end EF-1 and a low-end EF-2 tornado were confirmed today from damage surveys conducted by the National Weather Service northwest of Houston. The first occurred in Riata Ranch. The second was in Klein. Additional damage surveys may still be done to check for other tornadoes or to fine tune these paths.

Two confirmed tornadoes

The NWS Houston office went out and did the dirty work on damage surveys from Monday’s tornadoes. They confirmed two so far. The first was a high-end EF-1 that had maximum winds of 105 mph (corrected from the above graphic) in Riata Ranch and a path length of 2.6 miles. The second was a low-end EF-2 that hit the Klein area, with maximum winds of 115 mph (corrected from the above graphic) and a path length of 3.8 miles. I believe these are the first tornadoes in Harris County since just after last Christmas.

Riata Ranch tornado

The Riata Ranch tornado touched down just after 1:20 PM on Monday. For those unfamiliar, Riata Ranch is just east of Barker Cypress Road just south of 290. A radar capture from 1:23 PM on Monday shows the tornado developing. The first touchdown point occurred in Towne Lake, just off Tuckerton west of Barker Cypress.

Following radar, you are able to see the rotation track to just west of Barker Cypress at 290 by 1:26 PM. It seems that a debris signature (TDS) becomes evident on radar between 1:26-1:29 PM, which indicates a pretty healthy tornado in progress. This occurs as the original circulation begins to broaden out crossing 290. At this point, the tornado was lifting.

Indeed, the NWS found that the tornado dissipated around 1:28 PM at 290 and Barker Cypress.

Overall, the TDS on this one was very impressive, usually only the type of TDS I’ve seen in typically stronger tornadoes. This is likely indicative of the densely populated area it struck.

Klein tornado

We got a 10-to-15-minute break before the same supercell dropped another tornado. Around 1:41 PM, a new tornado dropped just east of Cutton Road along Louetta Road.

This one did not show quite as strong a TDS as the Riata Ranch tornado, despite being a little stronger. Nuance is a thing. It didn’t take long for it to show up, however, which happened around 1:47 PM. Notably, the debris signature from the Riata Ranch tornado does not appear to have dissipated entirely around this time, but it does show up nicely.

Notably, when you’re looking at these tornadic debris signatures, remember a radar beam doesn’t go out flat. It aims up, so at this distance, about 49 miles from the HGX radar in League City/Dickinson, we’re sampling what’s occurring about 3,500 feet up. So this indicates that the tornado was lofting debris several thousand feet up in the atmosphere. Overall, this was a very impressive event for Houston. We see tornadoes rather frequently here, but not usually this strong. Of the 78 tornadoes confirmed in Harris County since 2000, only 6 have been F/EF-2 or stronger. The Klein tornado now makes seven.

In brief: There is a low-end risk for a severe storm or two on Monday evening across the area as cooler, drier air builds in. Thanksgiving looks stunning. We take a peek at the longer range today, as the hype machine builds for early December cold. While we believe there is a potential strong shot of cold coming, we do not currently believe it will be a damaging cold air outbreak.

Happy Sunday! We’re interrupting on the weekend to fine tune a couple points from Friday’s forecast and to discuss some of the potential cold weather risk after Thanksgiving weekend.

Fundraiser

Our fundraiser continues through this week, and then we close the merch store and proverbial Venmo! Thank you again to all who have contributed or bought some holiday gifts for friends or family yourself. Ten years in on this, and we remain so grateful for your support!

Heat records

First off, Friday’s 88 degree high ended up a record for the date and is now Houston’s hottest temperature on record so late in the calendar year, besting November 15, 1978 for that honor. Secondly, our streak of 80 degree days ended unceremoniously yesterday, with Bush only hitting 79 degrees. The streak finishes at 10 consecutive days, the 6th longest on record for November-February, with all others occurring in early November.

At Hobby, the streak continues, with 82 degrees yesterday marking 11 straight days. We also hit 90 degrees on Friday there, a new record for so late in the season and tying several days for hottest on record in November. 90 degrees was last set at Hobby on November 16th this year. This is the 3rd longest streak of 80s at Hobby and the longest so late in the year.

I feel like we’re just getting used to this by now, but statistically, this mid to late-November stretch will end up a remarkable one.

Today

No issues today. Enjoy the sunshine. Highs will be in the upper 70s after a low in the 50s in many spots this morning.

Monday

We’ll start the day off mostly cloudy with a little more humidity and scattered showers developing. They’ll be off and on and mostly light throughout the day. The much-advertised thunderstorms will arrive in the Brazos Valley and Aggieland during the late afternoon, bringing a chance of strong storms. That will then slide south and east, arriving in the northwest suburbs of Houston by about early evening. Most activity will lift to the north from there, bringing more numerous early evening storms up into Montgomery and Walker Counties.

Then, the front itself pushes into the northwest suburbs with a line of thunderstorms after 8 or 9 PM. That will push across the Houston area over the next few hours, arriving at the coast by about 1 to 3 AM. Storms will be strong with some gusty winds and lightning possible, along with heavy rain. We are outlined in a marginal risk (1 of 5) for severe weather tomorrow, with a slight risk (2/5) up toward College Station.

Tuesday/Wednesday/Thanksgiving Day

Showers will probably linger in Brazoria and Matagorda Counties through morning on Tuesday. Slightly drier air and gradual clearing will allow temperatures to push back to near 80 Tuesday afternoon except where clouds and showers linger. A much stronger push of cool, dry air arrives on Wednesday, this without any rain. Holiday travel on Wednesday should have minimal disruption by car or probably by air with minimal disruptions at the Northeast hubs, Atlanta, and only some gusty winds in Chicago.

This should allow Thanksgiving morning lows to take a dip into the 40s almost everywhere. Thanksgiving Day looks perfect with sunshine and highs into the 60s.

Beyond Thanksgiving

The forecast gets sloppy next weekend with a chance of showers returning to the picture. Again, we are skeptical about this as it relates to the Houston area specifically. But suffice to say, there will at least be a chance in the forecast.

Beyond that, the European AI model has rankled some people over the last few days, as it has shown significant cold dumping into the Plains and eventually Texas. I’ve even seen the February 2021 freeze event thrown around (irresponsibly) on social media as an analog. Currently, the European AIFS model forecast shows temperatures as much as 15 to 20 degrees below normal (compared to 30 to 50 below normal in February 2021).

Doing some napkin math, this would probably yield upper 20s to low 30s in the Houston, cold but not alarming. Almost all other reliable model guidance is warmer than this. But let’s just say that, yes, our first freeze of the season is possible after Thanksgiving weekend. Will it be something we have to worry about beyond a light freeze? At this point I would say probably not. But we’ll of course keep watching trends. European AI modeling has done a great job with hurricanes but it has yet to truly prove itself in terms of temperature forecasting.

In brief: A cool front today will bring a smattering of showers or a few thunderstorms to Houston, followed by continued warm but slightly less warm weather this weekend. A much stronger front aims at us for late Monday or early Tuesday, ushering in what we hope will be a spectacular Thanksgiving Day.

Good morning! Hang on one second, I think Josh Allen just got sacked again. Yep. Can confirm.

Annual Fundraiser

Black Friday is a week away, and our annual fundraiser is in the final stretch! We’ve been fortunate to have a fairly quiet weather year in Houston for a change. Still, we’ve got some fun holiday gift options that are uniquely Houston. Or you can just throw in a couple bucks if you’re able. Eric and I deliberately keep our fundraising for the site limited and confined to November so we can focus the rest of the year on information, content, and improvements to our operation for you. We know everyone has a personal budget for what news and information outlets they support, and we are so grateful and thankful to have your support.

Dang, has it been warm!

Yesterday was our 9th consecutive day of 80 degrees or more. We hit 86 degrees officially at Bush Airport, a new record for the date, breaking the previous record of 84 degrees set in 2011 and 1977. That’s now the third record high we’ve matched or beaten in this stretch.

I went back and looked at November and wintertime streaks of 80 degrees or more, and this now ranks as the sixth longest streak of 80 degrees or hotter in the November through February timeframe.

The last comparable streak of this length occurred last November when we did 13 days in a row to start the month of November. But a streak of this length this late in the year has only occurred one other time: December 2021-January 2022 when we hit 85 degrees on New Year’s Day during a 9 day streak.

So will we threaten the 13 day record? We probably won’t break it, but we may tie it. It should be at least 11 straight after today and tomorrow. But Sunday is the wild card day with a forecast high right on the fence of 80 degrees. Monday should warm back into the low 80s ahead of the front before we wipe it out completely Tuesday or Wednesday. Hopefully the Texans can string together more wins like we’re doing with 80s.

Today

As a meteorologist, you’d think we’d like good forecasting challenges. And most of us do. However, the story of the disturbance today has been rather maddening. Maybe it’s because we went from 2 to 4 inches of rain forecast earlier this week to NyQuil dose accumulations. Capital N, little y…. There is an expression in meteorology “When in drought, keep it out,” meaning rainfall chances. A lot of times modeling can get overzealous with rain risks in drought-y patterns. There’s a persistence to that kind of pattern. That said, we’re already also seeing some forecast “nudges” next week now too. But clearly models are struggling to handle this pattern in the lower latitudes over North America right now.

Anyway, here’s how today should unfold. Radar is mainly quiet for now with a couple showers up near Navasota and Huntsville. Scattered showers and a couple embedded thunderstorms will develop late this afternoon or early this evening across the area, probably near a Cleveland-Cypress-Wharton line. They will slowly crawl south and east overnight, perhaps lingering near coastal areas or down toward Freeport and Lake Jackson on Saturday morning.

The rain totals will be quite erratic with some places seeing perhaps 1 to 2 inches of rain, while most languish at a quarter inch or less.

Weekend

This weekend looks fairly benign. I don’t want to say we won’t see any rain at all; we could see lingering showers near the coast on Saturday and an isolated rogue shower, especially north and west of Houston on Sunday. But overall, any disruption to your plans should be minimal. As noted above, look for 80s on Saturday and around 80 or so on Sunday. Slightly cooler air filters in, so morning lows may be in the low 60s or even some upper-50s in outlying areas Sunday morning.

Monday & Tuesday

Things change more substantially early next week. A legitimate cold front is still on track to push through the area on late Monday or early Tuesday. We do expect more numerous or widespread showers and thunderstorms with this front compared to what we see today. That said, the forecast is by no means set in stone. We’ll reassess and update Sunday or, of course, Monday. Either way, look for a drop off in temperatures behind the front.

Wednesday

Good weather for travel it would appear! We kick off the holiday weekend with cooler temperatures, as highs will only be in the upper 60s to low 70s after morning lows in the 50s. Wednesday does look breezy as well, so just note that, particularly if your early holiday weekend plans include a boat.

Thanksgiving Day

Houston isn’t exactly known for nice weather on holidays. We lean on gallows humor to get through them. However, it looks spectacular on Thanksgiving as it stands right now. Morning lows should be in the 40s and 50s, so dress appropriately for one of the many turkey trots around the area. I will say, overnight modeling is trying to back off on this — again. So the map below may be optimistic on the cool side.

Highs will be in the 60s. Friday and the rest of the weekend looked good as of yesterday, but this morning the European model is trying up rainfall chances a bit. I’ll remain skeptical for now. Enjoy the weekend!

In brief: Near record high temperatures will settle in over Houston, along with a burst of high humidity early next week. Our next front is penciled in for Thursday, with a good chance of much needed thunderstorms showing up in the current forecast.

Bush Airport hit 83° yesterday, 3 off the record of 86° set 20 years ago. Today’s record of 89° looks pretty safe as well. But get used to these low to mid-80s because they’re going to be with us over the next 5 or 6 days.

Today through Sunday

The next three days will be cut from the same cloth. Expect sun, some clouds (especially in the morning, along with perhaps some patchy fog), and warm, humid conditions. We’ll probably do low to mid-80s today and tomorrow and more firm mid-80s on Sunday. An isolated sprinkle or two can’t be entirely ruled out, as well as some drizzle in areas with morning fog. I’m mainly mentioning that because we don’t want to be told that we mist the forecast.

Monday and Tuesday

We really dig in on the humidity here. That may be the only thing that prevents us from hitting the upper-90s. Gulf moisture starts to pool over the area, allowing dewpoints to push closer to 70° at times, while precipitable water, or the amount of available moisture in the atmosphere goes from about 1 inch or so on Sunday to 1 to 1.5 inches Monday to 1.5 to 1.75 inches Tuesday.

More humid air heats up slower than dry air, so there’s probably a functional limit to how warm we can realistically get Monday and Tuesday. Some model guidance is very bullish, pushing us close to 88 degrees, but I think we’ll settle in the 84 to 86 degree range away from the coast most days, close enough to threaten or break records but not outlandishly hot for mid-November. An isolated shower is possible Monday with a slightly better chance for isolated showers on Tuesday. Most folks will remain dry, but some will see a passing shower.

Later next week

Models are settling on Thursday as cold front day next week. While this looks like a quick moving system, it does look like it will be fairly moisture-laden, which is good because we need rain. Severe drought coverage expanded from 23 percent to 35 percent in the Houston area week over week based on yesterday’s drought monitor report.

We continue to see extreme drought bubbling up west of Sealy and Wharton. So any rain will be welcome. Thursday’s front looks interesting on some model guidance in that it may have some element of severe weather risk. It’s too early to speculate much but the basic ingredients seem to be in place. Bottom line? Expect a cold front on Thursday that could perhaps be accompanied by some noisy thunderstorms and locally heavy rain. More to come.

Behind that front, much cooler weather arrives, though at this point it looks to fall short of what we saw earlier this week. Expect highs in the 60s and low 70s with lows in the 40s and 50s most likely. We will continue to fine tune things a bit. At least it will be closer to average for November.

Fundraiser

Our annual fundraiser continues, and we want to thank all that have purchased items or contributed to the site. Your support ensures that we can provide quality information year-round, in the good weather times, and in the inevitably bad weather times. For more information on how to donate or purchase merchandise, please visit this page. Thank you so much again for your support!