Houston faces a pretty straightforward forecast for this week, as high pressure builds in by Tuesday or Wednesday, and the heat goes up. Chances are good that inland areas, particularly north of Spring, and west of Katy, will see one or more 100-degree days this week, and this coming weekend. And after today and possibly Tuesday, rain chances will fall off a cliff. In short, August will feel like August.
Monday
However, before that happens we’re going to see one more day with reasonably good rain chances—probably around 30 percent for areas north of Interstate 10, and 50 percent for areas closer to the coast. Conditions will be similar to Sunday, in which scattered to widespread storms popped up during the late morning and afternoon hours. Some of these storms can quickly drop an inch of rain (as happened Sunday near Waller), whereas most of the region will see a tenth of an inch of rain, or less.
The rain chances, combined with partly cloudy skies, should hold highs to around the mid-90s for most of Houston. Monday night should be rain-free as storms end with the loss of daytime heating, and lows will probably fall into the upper 70s for inland parts of the region.
Tuesday and Wednesday
These will be transition days, as high pressure begins to build over most of Texas, including Houston. The atmosphere may still be able to squeeze out some rain showers during the afternoon, along the sea breeze. Still, with mostly sunny skies, expect highs in the mid- to upper-90s.
Thursday until ???
When the high pressure arrives, it’s likely to stay awhile. We are looking at a sustained stretch of days in the mid-to-upper 90s, with areas more than about 20 miles away from the coast at risk of seeing highs of 100 degrees or higher. Nights will be pretty equally brutal, with lows only falling to around 80 for much of the metro area.
The weekend looks hot and sunny. Period.
This pattern may break by around the middle of next week, when highs back off some, and rain chances return to the forecast. We shall see.
The tropics
The Atlantic is likely to be as dead as a doornail for the next week—which for early August is something we can all celebrate.
Yeah…..August can move along already.
Got a 1/2″ of rain last Tuesday evening in the JV area!! NONE since. 🙁
We have not had much over the 3 weeks – maybe 1/3 of an inch. Pretty dry at Westheimer and Sam Houston… hopefully today we will get lucky.
To all of you who make Katy evacuate jokes… Don’t bother anymore, it’s already dried up and blown away.
Send Rain!
I don’t really understand the Katy jokes, or why she needs to evacuate. I moved here last year from Atlanta and I see jokes about her on here all the time.
It’s not a person, it’s a town on the west side of Houston. Years ago during a hurricane, I think it was Ike, they were telling people to evacuate, and so many people from Katy were asking if they needed to evacuate that it became a joke.
Ahh ok thanks, still not sure I get it…guess you had to be there
I remember it well. And I still feel bad for Eric! His readers were relentless about Katy during his first “live chat” session.
The traditional advice during hurricanes is “run from the water, hide from the wind”, so the only ones who should really “evacuate” from a hurricane (i.e. run from the water) are those along the coast. Katy is a long way from the coast and upstream of Houston and is in no serious danger of flooding during a hurricane, so the idea of evacuating Katy because of a storm in the gulf is somewhat silly. But, as mentioned elsewhere, lots of clueless people in Katy (and other areas) get scared by the overhyped hurricanes and thus think they are in danger and may need to evacuate when one comes.
There was inland flooding during Hurricane Harvey, and it affected Katy. That was the trigger for evacuation questions.
@Randy because it won’t let me reply below.
To be more clear, “run from the storm surge”, which sure as heck wasn’t coming to Katy.
What happened in Katy was just localized flooding from a lot of rain, but it wasn’t hurricane (saltwater) flooding from the coast.
And those Katy jokes were being made LOOOOOOOONG before Harvey. They started back when Eric was still doing his Chronicle column.
It rained on White Linen Night, Saturday evening around 6 or 7.
Is this going to be high heat without humidity?
Katy’s quite a lovely lady but is really, really, parched right now!! Could anyone please spare a missus a drink?
My yard is dying and I feel like a dessicated husk. Please. . . rain. . .