It’s a summer-like morning across the Houston region, with temperatures only falling down to around 80 degrees and humidity of about 90 percent. With Memorial Day weekend upon us, such is life now in Houston for the next few months.
TODAY and FRIDAY
Clearly there’s a lot of moisture in the atmosphere, but to produce showers and thunderstorms we’re going to need some disturbances in the upper-levels of the atmosphere to produce lift. And we’re like to see those during the next two days in Houston. I think the region will remain quiet this morning, but by this afternoon and again on Friday I think we’re going to scattered to widespread thunderstorms. These will have the capability to produce locally heavy rainfall, hail and damaging winds.
The forecast models suggest these systems will be most organized to the west and north of Houston during the next couple of days, and that’s borne out in the rain accumulation forecast from NOAA shown below. If you click on it you’ll see coastal areas may well see less than 1 inch of rain, with considerably higher accumulations inland.
The bottom line is that, beginning early this afternoon and running through Friday, you should be prepared for the possibility of strong thunderstorms. That’s not a guarantee they’re going to happen, and I don’t believe the storms will be organized enough to produce widespread flooding. Highs should remain in the mid-80s.
MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND
We’ll see a more summer-like pattern beginning Saturday, which is to say highs will likely climb into the upper 80s to 90 degrees, and the weather will be humid. But absent and major forcings, I’d expect any shower development to be fairly scattered, and confined to the late morning and afternoon hours when the days are warmest.
So if you’re planning outdoor activities this weekend be ready for the possibility of a pop-up shower, but I wouldn’t be too concerned about rain ruining the fun.
Posted at 6:50am CT on Thursday by Eric Berger
We have a 2nd grade trip to the beach today. How does it look for Galveston?
Sorry I missed this, Cindy.
We survived with almost no rain! Thanks!
many thanks for this informative and much needed site!
any chance for a links button for similar sites in other tx cities, insofar as any exist?
I am not aware of comparable sites. However it is within our long-term plans to eventually expand beyond Houston to other Texas metro areas.
Raining right now on the Ship Channel.
Any comments about the possible tropical disturbance of the year off the East Coast? If I recall correctly, you had a model forecast this quite a few days ago.
Yeah, it’s developing as expected. Not too big of a deal, IMO, and early season storms aren’t indicative of a season’s overall activity.
Do you think this summer will follow the pattern of the summer of 1970?
I don’t know. What was notable about that summer?