If you’ve lived in Houston–or any other place near a large body of water, for that matter–you’ve heard the term “sea breeze” quite a lot, especially during the summer. We often discuss the sea breeze in relation to those scattered, sometimes intense, thunderstorms we saw pop up over the region since Sunday. But what is a sea breeze, and how does it work?
Houston’s summer marches on
Houston’s weather has been a bit noisy this week. After another busy day Tuesday (a bit surprising to me admittedly), today should see the volume turn down a bit. Showers and storms moving through the region dumped 1-2″ on some folks, while others, again, saw nothing but some clouds. Again, welcome to Houston in summer.
Speaking of, this evening, Braniff is going to have more on some of the “why” behind our summertime storms!
TODAY
Given the action of the last few days, I feel obligated to at least include a chance of showers and a thunderstorm today. That said, weather radar is much less active this morning than it has been the last couple days. The weather models also insist that activity will be less than yesterday. This does have merit, as the heat dome over the Plains has expanded in the last 24 hours, meaning slightly drier air should be taking hold.
Still, it would be wise to be cautious with the forecast today. We’ll say, “Probably not many showers, but there should still be a few around.”
Temperatures begin their upward march though: Back into the solid mid 90s today.
Rain to exit Houston, plus a tropical checkup
Yesterday was certainly fun, wasn’t it? A substantial chunk of our audience saw some pretty strong storms, but rain totals were very sparse. The axis from Pasadena through the Heights saw 1-3″ of rain, but many areas around city heard thunder and saw no rain. Such is the nature of summertime storms in Houston.
TODAY
We’re already starting off today with a somewhat active radar, as scattered showers reach the coast from about Sabine Pass down through Matagorda Bay. Showers will be around this morning. As we go through the day, I think the best chance of rain will shift south and west of Houston. The further north and east you go from the city, the less storms you’ll see by afternoon (though not quite zero). Temperatures should again try for the mid 90s.
Houston’s rain chances soon to slip away
After a mostly quiet weekend around Houston, we had some excitement Sunday. In the morning, we had a waterspout in Galveston that prompted a Tornado Warning. Then, we saw numerous showers and storms around the area in the afternoon.
Rain totals weren’t terribly impressive, but a couple spots saw up around an inch of rain.
Anyway, as we go into this week, we’ll start with rain chances similar to what we saw yesterday.
MONDAY & TUESDAY
With a good onshore flow and a surge of good moisture, it will be wise to keep rain chances in the forecast for Monday. Like yesterday, this won’t end up being a widespread soaker, but some of us will see some beneficial showers, downpours, and possibly thunderstorms both this morning and this afternoon. Outside of that, continued sticky and hot, with highs in the low to mid 90s.
I think tomorrow will be a similar story, except we begin to see high pressure flex from the north. That means the best rain chances will be south of I-10. But again, a modest amount of shower/storm coverage should be expected. Again, highs should be in the low to mid 90s, with mid to upper 90s north of the Houston metro area.