A pair of cool days before a wet Wednesday in Houston

The forecast for this week is fairly straightforward. We’ll see a pair of cool and sunny days to start out, followed by widespread rain showers on Wednesday, before a cool and sunny weekend. As the region has has a relatively dry winter, the mid-week rainfall should help with the abnormally dry conditions for much of the Houston region—Galveston, Chambers, and Orange counties excepted.

MLK Day

It is clear and cold this morning, with freezing conditions on the far northern reaches of the Houston metro area, in places such as Huntsville, and lows of about 40 degrees in the city itself. With light northerly winds today, continued cold air advection will offset a mostly sunny day, and keep high temperatures at about 60 degrees. Low temperatures tonight will likely be a few degrees colder than Sunday night due to very light winds. This should allow for a more widespread, light freeze over areas such as Montgomery County.

Monday night low temperatures. (Pivotal Weather)

Tuesday

Another sunny, cool day with highs of around 60 degrees. By the late morning or afternoon, winds should shift around to come from the east, and along with building cloud cover this should help to moderate overnight temperatures, keeping them in the 40s for most of the region.

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Someone toss a coin to the Witcher to kill this monstrous humidity

Slightly cooler air has worked its way into most of the region from the northeast, as a weak front that has dissipated across the region. This has helped to mitigate the formation of fog—but don’t worry we’re expecting a return of fog this evening. Cooler, dryer weather finally arrives on Saturday evening, in the wake of a stronger front.

Friday

We’re seeing the development of some very light showers across the region this morning, and this pattern should slowly fizzle throughout the day. Effectively, this means we’ll see a mostly cloudy day, with highs of around 70 degrees and of course our old friend humidity. As mentioned, sea fog should develop this evening and during the overnight hours with just light winds and lows only on the upper 60s for the most part.

We anticipate only light rain with Saturday’s front. (Pivotal Weather)

Saturday

The first half of the weekend will bring more of the same before a cold front sweeps through from northwest to southeast. Winds will shift to come from the north by or before sunset in central Houston, and the front itself should move off the coast by early evening. A thin, broken line of showers could accompany the front, with falling dewpoints and temperatures. This will bring an end to the split pea soup weather Houston has had for nearly a week—good riddance.

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Houston sets heat records, but winter’s return is coming

Good morning. If you thought Wednesday was warm, you are correct. According to records kept by the National Weather Service, all four of the region’s major data recording sites set heat records for both daytime highs and nighttime minimums. The entire area, with the exception of the immediate coast, also saw its first 80-degree day of the year.

(National Weather Service)

Thursday

In addition to the anomalous warmth, the story this morning is the continuation of widespread, dense fog. After the fog clears later this morning, we’ll be left with a cloudy, warm day with high temperatures in the mid-70s. That weak front is still coming, and still going to dissipate somewhere along a line from the northern part of Montgomery County to Beaumont, so most of Houston is unlikely to see any effect except for some scattered showers—mostly north of Interstate 10. Lows tonight will be a bit cooler, dropping down into the mid-60s for most of the area.

Friday

More of the same. After the fog lifts, look for mostly cloudy weather with perhaps a 20 percent chance of light showers and highs in the 70s. And so ends the grayest, muggiest work week so far of 2020. Let’s hope it retains the title for awhile.

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Yes, winter is coming back. No, it’s not this week.

Two weeks into the new year, Houston’s average temperature of 58.7 degrees is nearly 6 degrees above normal. Just one day has recorded a below-normal temperature. This trend will continue until the weekend, but the last 10 days of the month look pretty cold, when Houston will fall back into a more winter-like pattern. There’s even a small—probably only about 10 percent—chance of snow.

Today will be a warm one for most of Texas. (Pivotal Weather)

Wednesday

The dense fog is back, and it probably will require until mid-morning to burn off completely in some areas. It’s also ridiculously warm, with lows only falling to about 70 degrees this morning, putting us at risk of setting records for high-minimum temperature. The good news is that we’re unlikely to see rain today, and like on Tuesday afternoon there may even be a few breaks in the clouds. I think we could all do with a bit of sunshine? High temperatures this afternoon will get up to near 80 degrees, although the final mark will depend upon how much sun we actually get. Lows Wednesday night will once again only fall into the mid- to upper-60s with more fog.

Thursday and Friday

Unless you live north of about Highway 105, these days will probably be about the same, with mostly cloudy skies, a chance of light rain, and highs in the low- to mid-70s. Sometime on Thursday evening, a weak front will approach the northern reaches of the Houston metro area before washing out. For northern areas, this will bring a brief respite of slightly cooler and drier weather.

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