Showers and a few thunderstorms possible today as a front finally brings some drier air

Good morning. A cold front is moving toward the region, and will reach central Houston by around noon, pushing off the coast later this afternoon. I’m not anticipating anything too explosive, but some showers and thunderstorms are possible with the front’s passage. We will see a brief cooldown through Wednesday before we warm up again for the second half of the week. A cold front on Saturday should bring us a more sustained stretch of cooler weather—finally allowing things to feel like winter again out there.

Also, before jumping into the forecast, several readers asked about a string of bright lights in the sky over Houston on Friday evening, at about 6:10 pm CT. I’m sharing a photo from a reader, Dave, below. The passage across the sky took about 1 minute. This was a “train” of Starlink satellites, which are launched in batches of 48 to 60 by SpaceX. The company now has a growing constellation of about 1,700 satellites to provide internet broadband service. The Starlink megaconstellation in low-Earth orbit is celebrated because it will bring high-speed internet to areas without it, but also criticized because orbit-raising trains such as this one impair the ability of astronomers to study the night sky. There are also concerns about orbital debris due to collisions as SpaceX, OneWeb, Amazon, and others assemble such constellations.

Monday

High atmospheric moisture levels are allowing showers to develop south of Interstate 10 this morning, and more scattered showers and thunderstorms are possible. Rain chances will increase as a cold front passes through the area, likely around 10 am for Conroe and The Woodlands, noon for Houston, and afternoon for coastal areas. A line of showers and thunderstorms will accompany the front as it passes through. Most areas will probably see 0.5 inch of rain or less, but a few areas could pick up 1 inch or more. Rains should end pretty quickly after the frontal passage.

After a decidedly humid weekend, temperatures and dewpoints will fall this afternoon, with northerly winds and much drier air. Lows tonight will probably drop to about 50 degrees in Houston, with cooler conditions inland.

Tuesday

Tuesday’s temperatures will depend upon how quickly the clouds clear, but I expect partly to mostly sunny skies by the afternoon hours, with highs in the mid- to upper-60s. With the return of the onshore flow, Tuesday night will probably be 5 to 10 degrees warmer than Monday night.

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday

A southerly flow really picks back up during the second half of the week, and this will pop temperatures back up into the low 80s by Thursday and Friday. Nights will be correspondingly warm, perhaps not falling below 70 degrees in parts of Houston. Skies will see a mix of sunshine and clouds, with rain chances probably below 10 percent.

Saturday and Sunday

A stronger cold front should arrive on Saturday, probably before noon, to end our fling with warm December weather. Some showers and thunderstorms may accompany this front as well, but at this point I think we’ll see clearing skies by Saturday afternoon, with chilly air moving in overnight, and lows dropping into the 40s. Sunday may only bring highs near 60 degrees, with mostly sunny skies, before a chilly night again. A slow warming trend likely begins Monday.