Relentless Texas heat continues and will worsen again next week

Through June 10th, Houston had experienced our coolest June since 2017, with a chance to perhaps outpace that year too. Since June 10th and through yesterday, it has been the third hottest mid-June stretch on record. When all is said and done, this will end up being one of our hottest Junes on record. We are firmly in it over the next week.

Today

I am not prepared to say that our rain chances are over with just yet. There are storms offshore of Louisiana this morning, along with a couple clusters of storms riding the periphery of the heat ridge over Texas.

As those clusters drop south and east, complex interactions with lingering boundaries from storms in recent days could yield at least a few new storms, mainly east of I-45. I think that’s the exception, not the rule and that the intensity of the storms will (hopefully) be much less than seen the other night. So don’t bank on storms. But just know there’s a chance.

Outside of that, more of the same: Clouds, sun, a heat advisory that could be upgraded to an excessive heat warning, and plentiful humidity. Highs will be in the upper-90s.

Saturday & Sunday

Hot. Highs near 100, lows near 80. Rain chances decline to near zero.

Next week

We will escalate the heat daily until about Wednesday or Thursday, when things should peak. This will push us into the low-100s for highs, with lows again near 80. While humidity doesn’t look *as* high as this past week’s heat, it will likely be high enough, along with slightly less wind to lead to another round of potential Excessive Heat Warnings.

When we look at the wet bulb globe temperature forecast for Houston we see extreme values continuing, much like this past week. Heat index basically factors in humidity and temperature to give us a “feels like” value in the shade. Wet bulb globe (WBGT) factors in things like latitude and date to generate sun angle, wind speed, and cloud cover, in addition to temperature and humidity to generate a measurement of heat stress in the sun. What I like about WBGT is that it’s sort of a universal measurement. Once above 90, that poses extreme stress on your body, whether in Houston, Miami, or Phoenix. Houston would typically be in the moderate to high level of WBGT this time of year, so the fact that we’re in “extreme” levels speaks to how abnormally hot this is for us.

A long way of saying: Take it easy on yourself. Go slow. Drink water. Maximum heat precautions need to be fully implemented over the next week.

Hopefully the “death ridge” responsible for this heat shifts into the Desert Southwest next weekend or the week of July 3rd. Should that happen, perhaps we can resume more typical summer weather here in Houston, which while still certainly hot, would be a little less stressful on our bodies.