It’s snowing in Houston—or rather above Houston. By looking at the radar this morning we can see that snow is falling down to around 2,000 feet above the surface and then melting. This is not uniform, and I expect that a few areas around, and north of town this morning may see a few snowflakes or sleet. We don’t expect anything to stick, so it shouldn’t affect travel around the area. More of this wintry mix will be possible tonight—including the possibility of some real snow falling right along the coast.
Thursday
We’re going to see one more dreary, winter day today as an upper-level storm system slowly moves through the area and off to the east. Rainfall accumulations won’t be a concern—we’re just seeing light to moderate precipitation—but the cold rain will add to an already cold day. Highs Thursday are unlikely to reach 50 degrees.
Things get interesting tonight, as temperatures are forecast to come down into the mid-30s in Houston. However, even as we’re cooling down this evening, precipitation should be ending from northwest to the southeast. This means for inland areas, likely north of Interstate 10, the rain may end before it gets cold enough to produce a wintry mix of snowflakes or sleet.
Likely, then, the best chance for a wintry mix will be closer to the coast, where precipitation will probably linger into Thursday night or early Friday morning. (As Matt explained in depth last night, such forecasts are very, very tricky. A lot of things have to go right to make snow in Houston). Our best guess is that coastal areas see some snowflakes later tonight, although kids may have to stay up fairly late to catch them. There’s the potential for some snow accumulations south of Houston, perhaps in Matagorda County, or well to the east of us in Southern Louisiana. Locally we don’t expect that, at least right now. Regardless of what falls from the sky, expect a very chilly night.
(Space City Weather is brought to you this month by the Law Office of Murray Newman)
Friday
The rain finally ends on Friday morning for everyone, and skies begin to clear out. Still, it will be cold, with highs of only around 50 degrees. Expect another cold night, although not quite a cold as Thursday night.
Saturday and Sunday
As we’ve been suggesting for a while, the region will see a fine, sunny winter weekend, with high temperatures in the low 60s, and overnight lows down around 40 degrees—warmer along the coast and colder for inland areas.
Next week
Most of next week looks fine as well, with highs remaining generally in the low- to mid-60s, and virtually no chance of rain until Friday or Saturday. It remains too far out to take a look at potential weather for Christmas in Houston, but we’ll start taking a preliminary look next week.
…I can’t remember, have you previously reported the earliest date of snow in Houston? “Snow joke”…cute…
I remember it snowed on December 8th around 2008 – 2009 in Houston. Of course the last “big one” was Dec 25th 2004.
that was an awesome “big” snow. i keep hoping for another one, but it’s been thirteen years 🙁
I remember it snowing on Christmas Eve and being outside with my watch/phone/whatever I used to tell time back then and making note that as of 12:00, a few snowflakes were still falling, making it technically a white Christmas. That’s pretty much Houston winter in a nutshell.
I moved to Houston in 2009, and I remember there was snow in early December that year. (We came here in the summer. Everyone told us it would be hot and humid. We dealt with the heat and the humidity. Nobody said anything about snow.)
A search turns up that it was on the 4th, and also that December 4 is indeed the earliest date that Houston has seen snow.
maybe I’ll make a snowman on top of chase tower
Aaaaaaah! ! ! The sky is falling, the sky is falling ! ! ! Oops, it’s just one flake of snow
It boggles the mind that people would be excited and want to keep the kids up late to see snow. I have memories of coming out of work and taking an hour or so to scrape off the car and dig it out, then driving home for two and a half hours, sliding into other cars, and having to shovel the walk. and finding neighbors collapsed with a heart attack from shoveling the snow. It’s not such a great thing, really.
Wow, I bet you are just a bundle of fun all year round!
Yup, you know you’re old when the only thoughts you have about snow are negative ones … and I’m from New England.
Ah, memories. Are you from Buffalo? Seems like a play-by-play of most Buffalo winters I was there for.
Eric, is there any correlation between hurricanes and colder winters with snow? I have a completely-unscientifically-supported theory that if you get a hurricane in the fall, you’ll get snow that winter. Katrina in august 05: New Orleans got snow on Christmas Day. Gustav in 2008- parts of south Louisiana got 2″ of snow that December. Ike in 2008- houston also got snow that December. Any meteorological connection?
It is snowing quite a bit here in Bryan, since 5:30 pm or so. Big beautiful flakes, and accumulating on the ground.