Yes, it’s going to be cold this week in Houston. But a hard freeze is unlikely for most

In brief: There has been a lot of uncertainty about the extent to which the coldest air from this coming week’s Arctic freeze will push all the way down to the coast. It now looks like Houston will be spared the very coldest conditions, so be thinking more along the lines of a light freeze in the city rather than a hard freeze.

Good morning on a beautiful, if chilly Sunday morning. We’re just jumping into your timeline with a weekend update because we finally have some higher confidence in how cold temperatures will get this coming week. If you recall, during the second half of last week, in our forecasts, Matt and I were hedging our bets on somewhere between very cold (low 20s) and not quite so cold (low 30s). At this point we’re leaning toward the milder end of the spectrum, which is good because it would likely spare the majority of the Houston metro area from a hard freeze.

Forecast quick look

Today is going to be cold, with highs in the 50s, and we’ll see a night with temperatures near freezing on Monday morning. Inland areas may even see a light freeze. But then we’re going to see a warmup on Monday and Tuesday, with highs potentially reaching 70 degrees. Rain showers are likely ahead of the next front on Tuesday, which will send temperatures plunging on Tuesday night. The big question has been how much of the Artic air that is going to spill into the lower United States will make it all the way down to the Texas coast. The answer, at this point, seems to be that the coldest air is going to get shunted off to the east.

National Weather Service low temperature forecast for Thursday morning. (Weather Bell)

Thursday morning freeze

We’ll have full details in our Monday forecast, but the bottom line is that low temperatures in Houston on the coldest morning next week, Thursday, are likely to be closer to 30 degrees than 20 degrees. Some areas south of Interstate 10 may not even freeze. Some areas along and north of Highway 105 may still see lows of 25 degrees or below. So the bottom line is that yes, it is going to get cold this week. But not as cold as we experienced in January, and with no precipitation in the cards during the coldest time periods, impacts will likely be minimal. More tomorrow!

13 thoughts on “Yes, it’s going to be cold this week in Houston. But a hard freeze is unlikely for most”

    • This is my benchmark: Full grown queen palms (20+ feet) were common here up to the Jan 17, 2018 freeze. Any that survived that then failed on Feb 15 2021. After that winter it has not been possible for queens to make it thru a season – until this one.

  4. Good morning! Thank you for the good news! What a roller coaster weather ride.
    We may have to cover and uncover plants and bring in potted plants?!

  5. I noticed the NWS revised the forecast low for Thursday morning for my area near Champions from 22 to 28 degrees. I hope the forecast sticks.

  7. Wow – windy weather conditions sure can affect things in the house. I’ve never noticed this weirdness that I can ever remember.

    Went in the bathroom to blow my nose and as I was about to toss the tissue in the toilet, I noticed the water in the bowl was sloshing slightly back-n-forth. I checked the other bathrooms and the same thing there. I thought maybe the whole house was rocking.

    So I did a google search, “why is toilet bowl water sloshing”. A YouTube video showed up from CBS Boston, with their meteorologist who explained the phenomena – plus showed a video someone sent in to him. Ya learn something every day.

  8. Thank you so much for the suggestion – and hope – that we will not see a major or maybe even a minor freeze (west Houston). I was not looking forward at all in dragging my potted plants back into the garage nor covering the outside beds with freeze cloth.
    People who live in parts of the country that have freezing weather every year are welcome to it.

Comments are closed.