Temperatures are generally in the low 40s across Houston this morning, ranging from 41 degrees at Bush Intercontinental Airport to 45 in Galveston at 6:15am. If, when you step outside, you think, “Oh this feels a bit chilly,” you might pause for a moment to consider the Midwest. The following map shows “wind chill temperatures” for the region this morning, and some of them are nearly 100 degrees colder than the air temperature in Houston. For example, Chicago has an air temperature this morning of -22 degrees, but with westerly winds of about 20 mph, the wind chill at O’Hare Airport is -49 degrees. Parts of Minnesota are near -60 degrees.

Wednesday

Today will be the last day that Houston sees long stretches of sunshine for awhile, before a warmer, grayer, and at times wetter pattern descends on the region. With partly sunny skies, we should see highs today climb into the mid-50s, and mostly cloudy skies tonight should keep lows in the mid- to upper-40s. After this, say bon voyage to winter for nearly a week.

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As expected in the wake of Monday night’s cold front, it is a chilly and windy morning, with temperatures ranging from the mid-30s inland to around 40 degrees along the coast. Winds will make it feel much colder, with recent gusts of 25mph recorded near downtown Houston, and 39mph in Galveston. Please bundle up this morning!

Tuesday

Drier air will continue to blow in today, making for a clear and sunny day with a high near 50 degrees. With persistent northerly winds, however, it will feel quite chilly all day long. If you think this is cold, however, be glad we only received a glancing blow of the cold air moving down into the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States. Check out these minimum temperatures for Tuesday night and Wednesday morning—when most all of the Houston metro area should remain just above freezing.

Wednesday

As high pressure slides to the east on Tuesday night, an easterly flow on Wednesday should begin to bring some clouds into the area, and these will initially blunt a warm-up of the region to some extent. Expect high temperatures in the 50s on Wednesday, and only the 40s on Wednesday night under mostly cloudy skies.

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Relatively mild conditions are in place across Houston, but we’ll see a strong cooldown on Monday night, leading to a cooler first half of this week. After this front, however, winter will take a backseat for awhile. Houston should experience relatively warm conditions for the first week of February, with several days of highs in the 70s, and warm nights for this time of year in the upper 50s.

Monday

The patchy fog scattered across the region will soon dissipate this morning, giving way to a partly to mostly sunny day. Expect high temperatures of around 70 degrees for most of Houston, with increasing southerly winds—with gusts perhaps up to 20mph—during the afternoon hours as the onshore flow really gets going.

A cold front will push through the region tonight, bringing a broken line of showers and perhaps a few thunderstorms. The front should reach the College Station area between 6pm and 9pm, push through Houston between 8pm and 11pm, and move off the coast by around midnight. Light to moderate showers could linger behind the front for an hour or two, but drier (and colder) air should quickly move in after the front’s passage. Due to the overall atmospheric setup, and fast-moving nature of the front, I would not expect more than one- to two-tenths of an inch of rain for most.

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It’s looking like a mostly nice weekend ahead for Houston as we begin to try and dry out some after a very damp few months.

Today & Saturday

After a chilly start today, we should see sunshine and a few high clouds.

As the day progresses, it will be pleasant, with high temperatures likely to get up close to 60 degrees or so. We won’t be quite as cold tonight, as low temperatures dip down into the low- to mid-40s.

On Saturday, a vigorous little disturbance will trek down the Rio Grande Valley. That puts it far enough away from Houston to keep our rain chances pretty low. On Thursday it looked like we only had maybe a 20 percent chance of a shower as this passed by. Today, I might up that to 40 percent that someone (not everyone) sees a few showers late Saturday afternoon or during Saturday evening. Otherwise, we will see a little additional cloud cover, but it should still be partly to mostly sunny most of the day. High temperatures Saturday should sneak above 60° in most spots, with a few mid-60s possible as long as cloud cover is limited and showers hold off til late. Rain totals will be zero for most folks, but perhaps up to 0.25″ south and east of Houston where shower chances are a bit higher.

Sunday & Monday

Once that Rio Grande Valley system exits, we’re left with mostly fair weather for Sunday and Monday. We’re expecting partly to mostly sunny skies on both days. Temperatures on Sunday will warm from the lower or middle 40s in the morning up into the mid-60s during the afternoon. Monday should see us go even a bit warmer. We’ll warm from the upper-40s into upper-60s or even better.

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