A rare June cool front is still in the cards for tonight

A few areas south of Houston saw some light to moderate showers on Monday, and the region will have one more shot at rain early on Wednesday morning. But after that conditions look really dry for at least a week or 10 days. Fortunately, the entire Houston metro area is at present drought-free. In fact, most of Texas is doing quite well for early June, with just 1.3 percent of the state in a “severe” drought or worse. This is a pretty decent posture in which to head into the hot summer months.

As local residents will know, during the middle of summer Houston often gets stuck beneath domes of high pressure for which it will not rain for days and days. Oftentimes, this pattern will only break with the incursion of tropical moisture. And then we enter the feast-or-famine state in which we can go from a drought to flooding within a couple of hours. So it goes along the Gulf Coast, during the summer. (At present we see no indications of tropical activity in the Gulf after Cristobal).

Tuesday

Speaking of heat, today will be hot and humid, so take care this afternoon when temperatures push into the upper 90s and the heat index soars into the 100s. Skies will be partly sunny, with light winds from the south. Weather conditions today will be a “proper” summer day in that it will mirror the kind of weather we typically see at the peak of heating in Houston, during late July and much of August. You’ve been warned.

Wednesday

Something pretty remarkable will happen late Tuesday night and Wednesday morning—a cold front will push into Houston. “Cold” is really not the operative word here, but “dry” is. Check out what will be on our doorstep Tuesday shortly before midnight in this map of dewpoints. (These are not temperatures, but rather a measure of the temperature at which moisture condenses. But believe me, the difference between a dewpoint of 75 degrees and 50 degrees is enormous).

The front should push through Houston during the overnight hours, with drier dewpoints arriving in Houston during the mid-morning hours. Some scattered showers and thunderstorms may accompany the frontal passage, but right now we don’t expect anything too explosive. Highs Wednesday should reach the low 90s. As the sun drops toward the horizon, we’ll start to see great weather for June, as temperatures fall to around 70 in Houston, and into the 60s north and west of the city.

Thursday and Friday

Expect a pair of sunny, warm days with highs in the low 90s, and nights with lows down around 70. We’ll continue to see lovely, drier air.

Saturday and Sunday

We should see more of the same, albeit with a little more warmer air, and a little bit more humidity. It still should not be full-on summer. Expect sunny skies.

Next week

Warmer, more humid weather returns for most of next week. Look for highs probably in the mid-90s with plenty of humidity. Rain chances look low to non-existent for most of next week, which is why we mentioned the drought outlook at the top of this post.