On the day before Thanksgiving, Matt and I just wanted to share our appreciation for our readers. When this site started in 2015, it was little more than a hobby. But now, three years later, we’ve been made to feel like full-fledged members of the greater Houston community. This has been a wonderful ride to be a part of, and it all begins with the kind words and enthusiasm of our readers. Thank you!

Wednesday

It’s a chilly start to the day, with lows generally in the 40s across the metro area. With partly to mostly sunny skies, we’ll see highs push up to around 60 degrees. A low-pressure system in northern Mexico and South Texas will bring some rain chances (likely around 50 percent) into the forecast this afternoon, and evening, but the system looks to remain far enough offshore that most of the heavy precipitation should stay there. Coastal areas will see the best chance of rain, but even there we’ll probably measure accumulations in tenths of an inch.

Thanksgiving

Some rain chances may linger from midnight into the wee hours of Thanksgiving, but as the low moves east, any rainfall should go with it. This will leave us with what should be a really nice Thanksgiving day. I’m looking for highs in the low- to mid-60s, with partly to mostly sunny skies. Mother Nature will provide us with, dare I say, a cornucopia of good weather?

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Well, we sure didn’t start the holiday week on a bright and cheerful note, as Monday was a December or January-like gray Southeast Texas day. We will have a much brighter day today before we head into the holiday weekend with some low-impact unsettled weather to discuss post-Thanksgiving.

Today & tonight

Skies have mostly cleared out across the area, with the exception of a few spots south of I-10, as of about 5:30 AM. Expect those locations to clear out also, and we’ll have a mix of sun and just a few clouds in the area today. It will feel world’s warmer versus yesterday. Monday struggled to hit 50°, but today we should have no issues getting into the low-60s for high temperatures. Clear skies will continue tonight. Look for overnight lows to range from the low-40s northwest of Houston to the mid-40s in Houston and the upper-40s southeast of town.

Wednesday

The good news: If you’re traveling around the region on Wednesday, it should be mostly uneventful. There will be some low clouds or light rain and drizzle that materializes in the afternoon, mainly in East Texas. So just be prepared for some wet roads if traveling anywhere from Houston late. But any meaningfully significant rain will develop overnight and mainly over the open offshore waters of the Gulf of Mexico or east into Louisiana.

If you’ll be traveling outside of the region on Wednesday, there shouldn’t be a ton of issues to deal with.

There will be snow showers and some gusty winds in the Northeast, so if you’re flying toward New England or the New York City airports, that could give you a delay. Atlanta and Chicago both look good Wednesday, so a couple trouble-free hubs will help matters. There will be no issues in Denver, but a storm bringing much needed rains to California may cause some issues at San Francisco or Sacramento. Overall, this is an acceptable travel day forecast.

Bringing it back locally, we’ll see clouds gradually increase during the daytime. Some light rain, drizzle, or a few showers may develop toward evening and that would continue into Wednesday night.

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Last week, when I looked at the forecast for Thanksgiving week, there was not a whole lot to be thankful for. We had the potential for heavy rainfall on some of the busiest travel days of the year, and overall the weather simply promised a cornucopia of “meh” conditions. I’m happy to report that the outlook for this week has brightened, and that we should see as much sunshine as showers.

On a completely unrelated note, we’re in the last week of our annual fundraiser. We’re selling t-shirts, sweatshirts, and umbrellas, as well as accepting donations to support the operation of this site. We’ve had a tremendous response so far; so thank you to everyone who has contributed.

Monday

After a cold front slogged through the Houston region on Sunday, we’re seeing a chilly morning with temperatures ranging from about 40 degrees far inland to mid-50s along the upper Texas coast. Scattered showers have developed overnight, and these rains should continue on-and-off for much of this morning as upper-level winds support the upward movement of air at the surface.

Rains, for the most part, will be moderate, with accumulations of only a few tenths of an inch. They should end by this afternoon as this system moves from west to east. Temperatures will hang around the mid-50s today as skies will remain gray even after the rain departs to the east.

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Yesterday ended up being a nice day after another cold morning. I wanted to highlight a couple superlatives from yesterday. At Bush Airport, we snuck down to 30°, once again, our coldest morning this early in the season since 1999 (11/3/1999). That’s our official tally for the date. Impressively, Hobby Airport got down to 32° on Thursday morning. It hasn’t been that cold this early in the year since 1969, when we hit 28° on November 15th!

30 degrees this morning at IAH; earliest we've done 30 since 11/3/1999 at Bush. It appears Hobby hit 32° this morning, which, if I'm reading the data correctly, would be the earliest freezing temp at Hobby since 1969! pic.twitter.com/Yd5gXjhErs

— Matt Lanza (@mattlanza) November 15, 2018

So for the greater Houston area, it was our earliest freeze in about 20 years, though for a few parts of the area, it was likely our earliest freeze in almost 50 years!

No more freezing temperatures to discuss for a little while, but we will be discussing some more active weather once again.

Today and Saturday

Other than some passing high clouds perhaps, today looks great. Spectacular, even. We’ll warm up into the middle or upper-60s in most of the area. A few spots could push 70 degrees. We added about eight to ten degrees to morning lows today, and I expect we’ll add another six to eight degrees on Saturday morning. Most folks will sneak into the mid-to upper-40s tonight, though a few locations may neglect to drop below 50 degrees.

During the day Saturday, we should see a few clouds rolling back into the area. So we’ll call it partly to mostly sunny. We should be able to hit or exceed 70 degrees on Saturday afternoon.

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