Houstonians are girding themselves for a mixed bag of weather, with forecasters predicting everything from muggy warmth to thundery upheaval over the course of the week. The National Weather Service (NWS) expects temperatures to hover in the low-to-mid 80s, with the mercury potentially cranking up to a balmy 88 by Friday. For the most part, the city will wallow beneath cloudy skies, while gusty south winds whip up to 20 mph.
However, that's not all Mother Nature has in store. "Patchy fog after 3am" is on the nighttime menu and "Patchy fog before 7am" come sunrise, according to NWS. The weather roulette continues with a "30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1pm" on Saturday, escalating to a 70% likelihood of these conditions overnight into Sunday.
For anyone keeping an eye to the sky, the Storm Prediction Center forecasts that "scattered severe thunderstorms are possible Wednesday afternoon and evening" for stretches of the Ohio Valley to Lower Michigan. Their analysis paints a portrait of potential hailstorms and gusty winds thanks to an unstable atmospheric cocktail: a combination of ample moisture, sufficient heating, and invigorating upper-level westerlies.
The forecast for the Plains is just as chaotic. When a cold front barrels in Wednesday night, it's set to collide with a high-energy air mass "with over 2000 J/kg MUCAPE." While forecasters concede that the timing of such fronts can be unpredictable, the probability of hail could rattle the area, as per the Storm Prediction Center.
Back in Houston, the National Weather Service Houston has simplified the weekly weather outlook to a stream of buzzwords: "warm/breezy," "patchy fog possible late," "patchy fog possible early," and "late night patchy fog possible near the coast & offshore," they posted on X. As the week unwinds, residents will juggle umbrellas and sunglasses, all the while stalking the skies for the next climatic curveball.
Here are the latest SE TX temp outlooks for today/ tonight/Wednesday/Wednesday night. Today: warm/breezy. Tonight: patchy fog possible late. Wednesday: patchy fog possible early. Wednesday night: late night patchy fog possible near the coast & offshore. #txwx #houwx #glswx #bcswx pic.twitter.com/fa1jnvihCM
— NWS Houston (@NWSHouston) April 16, 2024
