Houston residents, prepare for a wet and wild weekend as the weather takes a turn. Today will see patchy morning fog give way to partly sunny skies, with highs cresting near 72 degrees and southeast winds blowing 5 to 15 mph. But hold onto your hats – gusts could reach up to 20 mph.
Tonight, Houston is set to be hammered by showers and thunderstorms, escalating after 1 a.m. with "a chance of showers and thunderstorms, then showers and possibly a thunderstorm after 1am," as per the forecast. The temperatures will dip to around 60 degrees, but those southeast winds are sticking around, blowing 10 to 15 mph and threatening to gust as high as 20 mph. The chance of precipitation is a soggy 90%, with potential new rainfall between a half and three quarters of an inch.
But the wet weather won't stop there. The NWS Storm Prediction Center spells trouble for Saturday morning with "isolated severe thunderstorms" in the forecast for southeast Texas. These could potentially bring localized damaging winds and brief tornadoes. By Saturday afternoon, the storms are expected to dry out, yielding to clearer skies and a cool low near 49 degrees by evening.
Sunday promises a respite with sunny conditions and a high near 66 degrees, but it'll be breezy with west winds blowing 10 to 20 mph – gusts could aggressively get up to 30 mph. The evening will remain mostly clear with the low around 50 degrees. Houstonians will continue to experience mostly sunny days with highs in the low 60s to mid-60s early into next week.
For those looking to stay dry this weekend, you might want to start early. The National Weather Service Houston posted on X that the "entire area gets rain/thunderstorms tonight thru Saturday morning as a system moves across the area." And while conditions will dry out from west to east by Saturday afternoon, Houston and its surrounding areas should brace themselves for the possibility of heavy rainfall and gusty winds.
Rain chances return to the forecast across parts of SE TX today. The entire area gets rain/thunderstorms tonight thru Saturday morning as a system moves across the area. Drying out from west to east Saturday morning/afternoon. Dry/cool Saturday night. #txwx #houwx #glswx #bcswx pic.twitter.com/zLx8oJQJJC
— NWS Houston (@NWSHouston) February 2, 2024
