In brief: The word for the next week is tranquil, and there’s just not much to be concerned about as Houston enjoys one of its nicest periods of weather for the year. Winds will finally die down, and humidity should remain low through most of the weekend. Temperatures will, for the most part, be mild.
About those winds
The first week of April has been rather windy. First, we experienced robust onshore winds in response to an inland low pressure system. Then, beginning Saturday, winds turned sharply northward in response to the passage of a front. During the first six days of this month, the average wind speed has exceeded 15 mph, which is about 50 percent higher than normal during April. Every day so far this month has had a wind gust of at least 30 mph, and maximum gusts have exceeded 40 mph on several days.
There has been one benefit of this, however. It has shaken much of the tree pollen, particularly from oaks, down to the ground. We are therefore rapidly nearing the end of tree pollen season. In any case, winds should now die down as Houston’s weather turns more tranquil, and it is possible that we won’t experience a day this week with a gust of 30 mph or higher.
Monday
Temperatures have bottomed out in the mid- to upper 40s this morning, and it feels rather chilly outside. However, we’re going to see plenty of sunshine today and, indeed, for the rest of this week and that will help warm things up. Look for highs in the mid- to upper-60s today with very dry air in place. Winds will be from the north at 10 to 15 mph. We will likely experience one more night in the 40s tonight, so if you like cold weather this is a night to really soak it all up.
Tuesday
We’re going to be warmer, with highs in the mid-70s, and very light winds. This is likely to be one of the 10 finest days of the year, weather-wise, in Houston. Skies will be sunny, with low humidity. Lows on Tuesday night will drop into the low- to mid-50s. Seriously, I challenge you to find something to complain about (the weather, at least!) Be sure and tell any out-of-town visitors that this is what it’s always like in Houston.
Wednesday
More sunshine. We’ll continue our warming trend with daytime temperatures of around 80 degrees. Lows on Wednesday night will fall to around 60 degrees. This really should be another splendid day with reasonably low humidity.
Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday
The rest of the week and into the weekend should continue to bring mostly sunny skies. Daytime temperatures will be in the vicinity of 80 to 85 degrees, with nights in the upper 50s to lower 60s. A weak front should arrive on Thursday night or Friday to blunt rising humidity levels, so our air should remain somewhat dry through the weekend. Honestly, there are just zero weather concerns this week at all.
Next week
Most of next week looks warmer, in the 80s and with more humid nights. Our overall rain chances appear to be quite low through at least the middle of next week. We have not seen our last front of the season, but one seems unlikely to push through Houston until at least the weekend of April 20 or so. Speaking of April 20, I don’t yet have a good read on weather conditions for Easter Sunday in Houston.
It was late in the season. It did not look good. The long hot humid summer was dominating early. Then in dramatic fashion Spring said: “Hold my beer” and pulled off the Cinderella comeback for the ages.
“Don’t sleep on Spring”
“Be sure and tell any out-of-town visitors that this is what it’s always like in Houston.” Truly made me LOL!
This week was one of the craziest temperature pattern flips since December 27, 2015.
Been a pretty good year thus far. Not too hot, not too wet but also no drought whatsoever. We even got some snow. I also don’t mind the wind, though it will be better when the pollens gone.
I’m confused. In the “winds” section, we read:
“Then, beginning Saturday, winds turned sharply northward in response to the passage of a front.” Northward?
For us, the winds (turned and now) coming from the north. Still are right now.
The winds were mostly blowing to the NW from the Gulf, Wed-Fri , keeping the worst of the storms to our N.
Then on Saturday, the Gulf winds turned due N, we lost that ‘windshield’.
Then the storminess built up over our area.
🌻
This is a reply to Ashley and Shadow from the other day. It was too late to respond when I saw the questions. To Ashley’s questions, the “cap” is a thin layer of dry warm air that originates from the mountains of Mexico. This warm, dry air gets pulled into the upper atmosphere over our region as mid latitude cyclones sweep through the United States. Depending on the precise location of these low pressure areas, this dry warm air will intersect approaching cold fronts and prevent the warm humid air at the surface from rising high enough to cool and condense into rain droplets.
The warm dry air, aka “cap,” acts as a shield preventing storms from developing because once the rising air at the surface hits the warmer air in the middle of the atmosphere, it can’t rise anymore. This is how caps or temperature inversions can prevent tornadoes. However, the “cap” can also make storms more severe, increasing the chances of a Tornado because under the cap, the warm humid updraft can build alot of extra strength and sometimes break through the cap, having much more momentum as it does so. That is one reason north Texas and the middle plains get such severe storms and tornadoes because they constantly have this cap, creating stronger updrafts when they bust through it.
So weirdly enough, an atmospheric cap can prevent and cause a tornadic storm at the same time.
For Shadows question of why has the cap been unbeatable lately?
We have been in an unlucky upper level wind pattern most of this spring. Most of the low pressure areas or Mid Latitude cyclones has swung north of Texas in such a way that the counter-clockwise winds that flow around these lows have pulled in that dry warm air from the mountainous plateau in Mexico ahead of the cold fronts associated with the low pressure systems. This is most likely the fault of the jet stream. It has remained north of Texas in a wavy arch like pattern.
In order to break the cap or prevent the cap the winds have to be coming directly out of the Gulf at all angles ahead of the cold fronts. This is made easier when the jet stream sags directly over Texas, also known as an upper level trough.
Ty Joseph 😀
Sadly this will be the last week of weather like this until probably late October if we are lucky.
“this is what it’s always like in Houston”
😂 Liar, liar, pants on fire!!!
I think that 2nd temperature map shows the “heat island” effect of Houston really well – actually more of a peninsula that heads to the gulf. Also, notice that Lake Livingston is obvious, Lake Conroe less so, but I don’t see Lake Houston at all. Just random observations…