Good morning. It has rained nine of the last 11 days at Bush Intercontinental Airport, and 10 of the last 11 days at Houston’s Hobby Airport. While some of us may be getting a little tired of rainfall, I would remind you that the alternative in late August is blazing hot sunshine and temperatures near or above 100 degrees. We saw plenty of that in June and July, when record heat scorched the region. Whatever your preference is, the rainy-gray skies-cooler temperatures pattern will prevail for some time. We’re even going to get a weak front later this week to keep daytime temperatures on the lower side of things. Alas, this front will have almost no impact on nighttime temperatures or dewpoints. Hopefully, however, we will get our first real fall front within the next four weeks. Fall is not all that far away!
Tuesday
On Monday, much of the west side of the region saw significant rainfall, with two or even three inches of rain in southwest Houston and parts of Fort Bend County. After a wet few weeks our grounds are getting soggy, and less able to absorb higher rainfall amounts. The good news is that, while our region remains in a wet pattern, we’re not seeing too much of a signal for slow-moving, heavy rainfall that will dump inches at a time, and lead to significant, widespread flooding. However, we will definitely have a chance for street flooding today where heavier rains set up. That appears most likely for areas west of Interstate 45 on Wednesday, where a few spots may see 1 to 3 inches of rain, with lesser amounts for most other parts of the region. Otherwise, expect highs in the upper 80s with light southerly winds.
Wednesday
The overall pattern remains the same for Wednesday, with a few areas likely to see heavier rainfall and lesser totals for much of the rest of the region. Expect partly to mostly cloudy skies with highs in the vicinity of 90 degrees.
Thursday and Friday
The aforementioned weak front approaches the northern reaches of the metro area on Thursday, and this shift should bring some slightly drier air into the atmosphere. This may knock daily rain chances back to 40 or 50 percent for the region, and I think we can expect daily high temperatures in the low 90s for the most part with partly sunny skies.
Labor Day Weekend
Unfortunately the forecast for Labor Day weekend is not super for outdoor activities. The aforementioned front will essentially stall out over Houston, and this will support rainy conditions. Rain chances each of the three days over the long weekend will probably be on the order of 60 percent, or so, with the potential for a few areas to see downpours. Skies will be partly cloudy, with highs in the upper 80s to 90 degrees. Looking ahead to next week, at this time I don’t see much changing in terms of our slightly cooler days with higher rain chances. This pattern looks locked in for awhile. Summer came in with a bang, temperature-wise, and it’s going out with a whimper.
Tropics
Matt has done a fine job of summarizing the Atlantic tropics in recent days. The bottom line remains the same: While the Atlantic basin is heating up we don’t see any near term threats to the Gulf of Mexico. That’s a fine posture to be in as we reach the end of August.
Looks like the global warming zealots claiming that AGW makes storms more plentiful and powerful are gonna have to watch August close without any named storms. I don’t know which side you guys fall on, and I respect everyone’s opinion, but I love it when the AGW crowd makes absolute claims and then watches the weather prove them wrong….again. Love Space City Weather by the way….John in Fulshear.
Weather and climate are not the same thing.
Then why did the climate not produce plentiful and powerful storms? (This answer is so tired) The earth is getting hotter; I just don’t think that the effects will be as disastrous as people want to make out.
what about the heat waves that hit Europe and China or Pakistan floods? It is affecting weather
In 1911 Europe was hit with a 70 day heatwave which killed 40,000 people in Paris. There have been many heatwaves in Europe in the past. That one was particularly a bad one. In 1877-1878 over 9 million people were killed in China due to a terrible drought. China has had 1800 famines due to drought since 108 BC. There is an ignorance of history going on when people are blaming all bad weather on man made climate change today. I do believe that the planet is getting warmer overall, I just don’t agree with blaming every anomaly on it when worse events happened in the distant past.
I doubt Joey there is any sort of meteorologist or atmospheric scientist, show us your credentials Joe, armchair Google wizard doesn’t count. The real ignorance is people continuing to conflate weather with climate, weather is what happens in your backyard, climate is the entire effin’ global system, just becaise you experience a range of relative normal weather on your street during the course of a year doesn’t mean the overall system isn’t f****d.
Respecting others’ opinions would suggest that you’d refrain from referring to people whose opinions differ from your own as “zealots”.
You are correct. I should not do that.
Love the headline: “Summer came in with sizzle, and it’s going out with drizzle.” It brought a ray of sunshine and a smile this rainy morning.
For schizzle!
Is the drought over? 🙂
Nice to see relatively quiet Atlantic and Gulf basins too.
We are supposed to get the latest drought statistics on Thursday….fingers crossed.
I’d like the rain to hold off for a few hours inside the Loop. My AC compressor decided it had enough of the prior months’ heat and collapsed. The AC guy said he can’t install the new one if it is raining (chance of moisture getting into refrigerant line).
While the clouds and rain have kept it relatively cooler, I’m tired of living as if in the days immediately of Hurricane Ike (no power thus no AC). Yes, First World problem. Ha ha!
Chipping away at the drought,while not being blasted by Hurricanes. Let’s enjoy this for a change. I was fearful that we were going to have a 2011 rematch.
Sorry about the Artemis launch scrub….i was disappointed myself, in front of my screen in Houston!
You know what happened 11 days ago, Eric? My newly constructed pool was completed and filled. So for months Of incredible heat and no rain I could only look at the hole in the ground and dream. And now that it’s finished I can only look at the pool as it rains and dream.
There is a YouTube video that shows how to get into a pool when it is raining.
A lot of us like to make double dog sure there’s no lightening around before getting in a pool during a rainstorm ..Yes, swimming in light rain is fun!
The old editor here…in Tuesday’s discussion you mention better rain chances “Wednesday west of I-45”. You meant Tuesday, right?
I’m gonna say it, I’m kind of tired of the daily rain..7 weeks of (mid morning-early noon) Saturdays being rained out of swimming outdoors in a pool..My friends have had me me over most weekends for the last three years..In the summer, swimming was tops on our list of fun free things to do together..The last two summers were fabulous..This summer, while we tried our best, most Saturdays consisted of a few minutes of swimming, then dashing out of the pool upon seeing a dark rain cloud..Without patience to wait for the rain to quit, we simply got caught up in other activities….The beginning of the summer, before the rains came, my friends and I dealt with COVID, and not everybody felt like being outside..So this outdoors person can sadly say that this summer has mostly been spent indoors 🙁
lol what are you talking about? Did you forget May, June and July?
This is a completely unrelated question but something I have been curious about. I know California is very well protected from tropical disturbances because of the cool waters off the coast, but is it in the realm of possibility for a storm to move up the hot and narrow Gulf of California and strike near Southern Arizona with tropical strength? The water looks warm enough but would the mountains on either side restrict growth or cause too much sheer?
I just noticed that the Aug 30 12z GFS run actually shows the scenario I’m describing!
We got caught in Hurricane Kathleen (1976) that came up the Colorado River between Yuma and Blythe. We had been camping and had no idea it was on the way. We ended up waiting out the storm in a rest stop along I10.
Yikes! How long did you hunker down at the rest stop, before you felt safe enough to take to the road again?
I really don’t remember how long – until the rain and wind let up. We tried to get some sleep but we were in a VW bug, not a storm worthy car.
Wow, I’ve gotta say! I’m not usually one to comment, but the title of this here gawdarn article is real real choice fellas.