Good morning. Houston’s weather will now warm up through the weekend, with some healthy rain chances, before a cold front moves through late on Christmas Eve, or early on Christmas morning. This should bring cooler and drier weather into Houston for the holiday, and most of the week leading up to New Year’s Day.
Before jumping into the forecast I wanted to share a photo from a reader, Jaime Aguilar, who lives near spring. Jaime took this photo on Tuesday morning while out for a walk. It shows a ‘fallstreak hole,’ a fairly rare meteorological phenomenon that occurs when water in clouds suddenly freeze, and falls. This is sometimes induced by a passing airplane. I thought others might have seen this, so I wanted to explain the phenomenon.
Wednesday
Temperatures are starting out in the 50s this morning, and they’ll rise to about 70 degrees today. We’ll see a mix of sunshine and clouds, as highs push up to about 70 degrees. Winds will be a bit more prominent, out of the east at 10 mph, with gusts up to about 20 mph. Lows tonight will only drop into the upper 50s in Houston.
Thursday
Thursday will be a similar day, albeit with a few more clouds. Lows on Thursday night will be a few degrees warmer than Wednesday night, and we may see a few scattered, light showers develop after midnight.
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday
The weekend will see generally cloudy skies, with a decent shot of humidity, and highs of around 70 degrees or a tick warmer. Rain showers over the weekend will be on-and-off again affairs. Sunday—Christmas Eve—should be the most dynamic day in terms of rainfall and thunderstorm potential as a front approaches the region. I don’t think things are going to get too extreme, as most of the region will likely see 1 to 3 inches of rain through the weekend, but it could be messy at times. Something to consider if you have plans for Christmas Eve.
Christmas Day
The good news is that, increasingly, it looks like the front will be pushed through Houston by Monday morning. This will reduce rain chances on the holiday to about 10 or 20 percent. I’d expect highs to reach the upper 60s with partly to mostly cloudy skies. Lows on Monday night will likely drop into the upper 40s as cooler and drier air moves in during the daytime.
Next week
Most of next week looks fairly pleasant and winter-like. Most probably we’re looking at days in the 60s, with lows in the 40s, and partly to mostly sunny skies.
Really enjoyed reading your weather reports. Appreciate your efforts in generating these weather reports so early in the morning.
Wish you all Happy Holidays.
Srini
Fallstreak hole? Freezing clouds? Nah, I think it’s aliens!
Fallstreak hole? Good name for a subdivision!
For about the last couple days, there have been at least two high flying jets laying down contrails. Yesterday morning traveling south on the Gulf Freeway near Almeda Mall, there was one high flying jet flying south at the same time another high flying jet was flying northeast. I saw them in my windshield at the same time.
They are “contrails” not “chemtrails”
No, they are chemtrails. The government is spraying mind control chemicals on us! 🙂
Thanks for the info…we were wondering about that cloud formation around 9 am in the Kingwood area. Very noticeable!
Enjoy the 40-60 degree days.
Remember the merciless summer we had gone through. Savor every day until next summer rolls around.
Let there not be a 3peat of misery.
And the solstice is tomorrow which, unfortunately, means the days slowly start getting longer as we grind our way towards another summer. 🙁
I am glad that this Christmas is not going to get frigid right before the holiday, as it last year. Hopefully my papaya will survive this winter, and the weather should be much better for my road trip this holiday.
I’ve never heard of/seen a fallstreak hole, very interesting. Over the years I’ve learned quite a lot of cool stuff from this site. Thanks SCW!
“A cold front moves through late on Christmas Eve, or early on Christmas morning”. Well, as usual it looks like the front will again be arriving here when we’re all asleep. Wonder if we’ll ever again get to witness a front arriving here during the daytime hours. I’ve been wondering if there’s a viable reason for this.
Maybe the fronts are shy and don’t want to be seen?