Lots of sunshine ahead in Houston’s forecast

It’s been a somewhat dreary winter so far, but we’re now entering a period in which high pressure may dominate our weather more—not all the time, to be sure—and this should bring us a nice string of mostly sunny days. If you like cooler, sunny weather, the coming forecast period should be perfect for you. Also, the weather for the Houston Marathon looks increasingly likely to be cold.

Friday

After a cool start in the 40s for most of Houston, the region should warm into the mid-60s today under mostly sunny skies. It should be a pleasant day before a cold front approaches from the west and pushes through the area. Lows tonight will be in the 50s for the most part.

In terms of rainfall, some scattered showers are possible this evening, and then a line of broken showers and thunderstorms will develop later, likely pushing through Houston from west to east between 10 or 11pm Friday night and sunrise on Saturday. We still expect most areas to see one-half inch of rain, or less from this system, but there could be some higher isolated totals. We don’t anticipate any problems from the rain.

Saturday

Rains should end around sunrise, or shortly thereafter, and the remnant clouds should dissipate by around midday if not before. Highs will reach into the mid- to upper-60s under sunny skies, with drier and eventually cooler air blowing in from the northwest. Saturday night will be chilly, with lows dropping down to around 40 degrees in the city of Houston, and upper 30s for inland areas, most likely.

Sunday and Monday

With high pressure overhead, these will be sunny and cool days, with highs in the mid-50s, roughly, and lows around 40 degrees in the city—cooler inland, and warmer near the coast.

The rest of next week, and the Houston Marathon

As we’ve been saying, temperatures will gradually warm up from Tuesday to Thursday, with highs getting back near 70 degrees. Whether they get all the way there will depend on cloud cover, and the extent to which we get any rain. Right now there appear to be some chances for light, scattered rain showers but not too much more than that. In any case, the mostly sunny days we’re going to enjoy for several days now will probably come to an end by Wednesday or so.

This somewhat gray, and more humid weather will probably persist through next Friday or Saturday, by which time a fairly strong cold front appears likely to reach the area. We’ve been discussing this front, and its implications for the Houston Marathon on Sunday, January 20, for some time now.

At this time, the preponderance of model guidance continues to indicate that the front will make it through just before Sunday, leaving a cold, and probably clear morning in the range of 35 to 45 degrees at the start of the race (the full range of uncertainty can be seen in the European model meteogram above). This forecast still has a fair amount of uncertainty, but confidence is increasing for cold conditions during the 2019 run.