Texas 2024

[Chester B]

I got down to 67F this morning.  That's the coldest night probably since May.

Yesterday they were saying another hurricane here Wednesday??

[Xenon]

Central and south Houston narrowly survive the onslaught of sub 70F temps! IAH and Sugar Land hit 67F and 69F respectively (65F in the tundra of n/nw Houston). Long live the heat island 😆 Houston borderline zone 10 again, let's gooo 🤣

[Xenon]

58 minutes ago, Chester B said:

I got down to 67F this morning.  That's the coldest night probably since May.

Yesterday they were saying another hurricane here Wednesday??

Was hoping for some decent rain...seems to be shifting east now. Might not get anything at this point 🥲

[Chester B]

2 hours ago, Xenon said:

Was hoping for some decent rain...seems to be shifting east now. Might not get anything at this point 🥲

I'm good with that.  Some rain would be nice, but I don't want any of the wind.  I'm in a bad spot for wind it seems.  I think the counter clockwise winds have an easy time going up the bay and right up the SanJac which is inline with my house.  Not much to slow them down.

[amh]

It was 50F this morning, which felt good.

 

[Chester B]

46 minutes ago, amh said:

It was 50F this morning, which felt good.

 

Whoa!

8 hours ago, Xenon said:

Central and south Houston narrowly survive the onslaught of sub 70F temps! IAH and Sugar Land hit 67F and 69F respectively (65F in the tundra of n/nw Houston

I'm so close to IAH, so the temps recorded there are pretty accurate for my location.  I guess I'll be the only person on here who says that I had the same temps as the official records from the airport, instead of " but I'm in a warmer spot"!

[amh]

1 hour ago, Chester B said:

Whoa!

10 hours ago, Xenon said:

Elevation is wonderful, until winter.

[RedRabbit]

12 hours ago, Xenon said:

Central and south Houston narrowly survive the onslaught of sub 70F temps! IAH and Sugar Land hit 67F and 69F respectively (65F in the tundra of n/nw Houston). Long live the heat island 😆 Houston borderline zone 10 again, let's gooo 🤣

Just a hair under at 69f this morning. Loving the (slightly) cooler weather!

[Xenon]

7 hours ago, Chester B said:

Whoa!

I'm so close to IAH, so the temps recorded there are pretty accurate for my location.  I guess I'll be the only person on here who says that I had the same temps as the official records from the airport, instead of " but I'm in a warmer spot"!

I thought you were by Lake Houston? NE flow should help you out sometimes 

My palms in west Houston/Katy runs colder than IAH by a hair 😭 . It's not so bad with canopy. It's those long duration advective freezes (or seemingly every year in our 3 year slump lol) once a decade that are killer .

[Chester B]

7 hours ago, Xenon said:

I thought you were by Lake Houston? NE flow should help you out sometimes 

My palms in west Houston/Katy runs colder than IAH by a hair 😭 . It's not so bad with canopy. It's those long duration advective freezes (or seemingly every year in our 3 year slump lol) once a decade that are killer .

I'm trying to figure things all out here still.  For months now the wind comes from the south, about 99% of the time.  In winter we got more flow from the north.  During the hurricane the wind came from the south, but the Derecho was from the North.  

I guess technically I'm 10 miles ESE from the airport as the crow flies, in Summerwood.  Comparing my local weather stations to the airport is usually pretty close or spot on.  Will I get a bit of an improvement during cold events?  I don't know, but hopefully.  I have neighbors who lived in Kingwood previously and they stated it is more humid here, so hopefully I get some heat radiating off the lake.  I'm the third house from the water at just under 800 feet, and have the shoreline running both to the north and east of me.

 

[Foxpalms]

10 hours ago, Xenon said:

I thought you were by Lake Houston? NE flow should help you out sometimes 

My palms in west Houston/Katy runs colder than IAH by a hair 😭 . It's not so bad with canopy. It's those long duration advective freezes (or seemingly every year in our 3 year slump lol) once a decade that are killer .

What are the 850hpa temps during the bad freezes in Houston?

[Xenon]

Lol the hurricane is missing TX altogether and making a b-line for exactly where I am in Mississippi 😂 hope the storm surge isn't too bad just south of here 

[Xenon]

5 hours ago, Foxpalms said:

What are the 850hpa temps during the bad freezes in Houston?

I don't know and too much work to retrieve the data. You can try NCDC if you're really curious 

[_nevi]

On 9/10/2024 at 12:31 PM, Foxpalms said:

What are the 850hpa temps during the bad freezes in Houston?

 

On 9/10/2024 at 5:34 PM, Xenon said:

I don't know and too much work to retrieve the data. You can try NCDC if you're really curious 

The weather.us site has EMCWF "Reanalysis" where you can look at conditions/setups associated with past events:
ECMWF ERA5 (Reanalysis) | USA | Weather.us

Also, @Foxpalms, a lot of the wintry precip cold snap events that affect Texas tend to be associated with "shallow arctic air" (e.g. many times, the cold is literally only ~couple hundred feet off the ground, visual here). Hence, the H850s, H700s, H500s, etc often aren't all that impressive.

[Xenon]

Talk about extended summer...is it ever ending? Not that I'm complaining! Still no sub 70 degree low in Houston...mid Septermber is looking more like late June lol. Grow plants growwwww

 

 

[Chester B]

We could definitely use some rain though.  I 've had less than an inch since the 11" we got in July.  Not complaining about the temps though.  My garden looks at least 2 years old now, even though its only been in 5-6 months with all the growth I've had.  Next year things are really going to explode.  I'm still waiting for that cool down to rip out a large section of grass.

[Xenon]

11 hours ago, Chester B said:

We could definitely use some rain though.  I 've had less than an inch since the 11" we got in July.  Not complaining about the temps though.  My garden looks at least 2 years old now, even though its only been in 5-6 months with all the growth I've had.  Next year things are really going to explode.  I'm still waiting for that cool down to rip out a large section of grass.

Well that's unlucky. The garden in west Houston got ~2.5" this month, IAH is over 2" for September too 

[Chester B]

12 hours ago, Xenon said:

Well that's unlucky. The garden in west Houston got ~2.5" this month, IAH is over 2" for September too 

I not only hear thunder often, but I see the storms as well as lightning  Usually every few days.  The storms go around me but not very often come my way,  I might get a couple minutes of light rain on the edge of the storm system, if I'm lucky.

[Chester B]

Another day, another round of rain missed.  This what I always see. It was pretty black looking south. 
 

[Xenon]

Looks like summer is finally over in Houston...Hobby dipped to ~67F this morning. Hope zone 13 lasts as long as possible (I hate winter) 🥲

[Robert Cade Ross]

23 hours ago, Xenon said:

Looks like summer is finally over in Houston...Hobby dipped to ~67F this morning. Hope zone 13 lasts as long as possible (I hate winter) 🥲

lol time to move south by 1000 miles 

[Chester B]

Still looking for some rain over here.  I've been watering A LOT!  I planted a few palms yesterday because I got sick and tired of waiting for some temps that start with something other than a 9.  My neighbor has two decent sized Cypress tree and they are orange, I'm hoping they're not dead and will come back next spring.  The pines are very orange too and dropping needles like crazy, even the oaks are looking stressed..

[Xenon]

On 9/30/2024 at 9:50 AM, Chester B said:

Still looking for some rain over here.  I've been watering A LOT!  

Ok this is getting ridiculous. When is it going to rain???? Looks like that tropical moisture I was counting on is going to miss Htown altogether smh 🥲

[Chester B]

Seriously. We need some rain over here. I feel like I live in Portland now. Sunny and dry every day. I’ve had rain once since July. Next weekend I see a chance but based on what I’ve been seeing, that is likely to go away. A 20 minute down pour would be wonderful. 

Officially we’re still “Abnormally Dry” but “Moderate Drought” areas are right beside me.  A burn ban has been in effect for over a week now,  my grass is seriously crispy  

All of the plants I planted in April/May are doing pretty well  those after that are struggling  

 

[Xenon]

Mini heat wave...but winter is coming 🫠 

 

[RedRabbit]

I see Austin is forecast to be a little warmer than Houston. It’s not cold enough to matter much, but I’m curious as to why? Is Austin far enough west to where it is less susceptible to cold coming down from the plains?

[Xenon]

2 hours ago, RedRabbit said:

I see Austin is forecast to be a little warmer than Houston. It’s not cold enough to matter much, but I’m curious as to why? Is Austin far enough west to where it is less susceptible to cold coming down from the plains?

The center of the cold mass is plunging right around the MS/AL line which puts Houston closer to the center than central Texas.  Somewhere near the FL/AL line will probably dip below 40F tonight. 

This cold is coming from the east, not the central plains. It's actually warmer right now in Nebraska and the Dakotas than the FL Panhandle hahaha. The central Plains are getting a southern flow 

Every cold mass is different in its trajectory and spread/spill but less susceptible to cold? no, absolutely not. Austin is much colder than Houston 95% of the time.

 

The tropical central plains vs the Arctic Gulf Coast LOL

[Xenon]

Most of Houston stayed above 50F this morning except for the north side (low at IAH was 47F). Hobby recorded a low of 54F 

 

Almost 9am and it's till warmer in the Dakotas and Minnesota than the MS/AL/FL Gulf !!!

 

 

[RedRabbit]

10 hours ago, Xenon said:

The center of the cold mass is plunging right around the MS/AL line which puts Houston closer to the center than central Texas.  Somewhere near the FL/AL line will probably dip below 40F tonight. 

This cold is coming from the east, not the central plains. It's actually warmer right now in Nebraska and the Dakotas than the FL Panhandle hahaha. The central Plains are getting a southern flow 

Every cold mass is different in its trajectory and spread/spill but less susceptible to cold? no, absolutely not. Austin is much colder than Houston 95% of the time.

 

The tropical central plains vs the Arctic Gulf Coast LOL

Thank you. Coming from Florida I’m used to the front either getting there or not. Direction wasn’t a variable.

1 hour ago, Xenon said:

Most of Houston stayed above 50F this morning except for the north side (low at IAH was 47F). Hobby recorded a low of 54F 

 

Almost 9am and it's till warmer in the Dakotas and Minnesota than the MS/AL/FL Gulf !!!

 

 

It’s interesting that the SW part of town stayed warmer than the loop. I would have assumed Rice Military or Montrose would be the warmest part of town (away from the gulf) but that may not be true.

[Xenon]

26 minutes ago, RedRabbit said:

Thank you. Coming from Florida I’m used to the front either getting there or not. Direction wasn’t a variable.

It’s interesting that the SW part of town stayed warmer than the loop. I would have assumed Rice Military or Montrose would be the warmest part of town (away from the gulf) but that may not be true.

The consistently warmest part of town away from the water is the area around Midtown/Medical Center/Museum District/Rice/East Montrose. 

 

Direction matters in Florida too. It's always a variable. The Atlantic Coast is generally warmer than the Gulf Coast but depending on where the cold comes from, the reverse can be true. 1989 was slightly worse for the Atlantic Coast than the Gulf for example. 

[RFun]

3 hours ago, Xenon said:

The consistently warmest part of town away from the water is the area around Midtown/Medical Center/Museum District/Rice/East Montrose. 

 

Direction matters in Florida too. It's always a variable. The Atlantic Coast is generally warmer than the Gulf Coast but depending on where the cold comes from, the reverse can be true. 1989 was slightly worse for the Atlantic Coast than the Gulf for example. 

True, weather is never 100% with those trends. 

[Chester B]

I hit 49F. It feels like winter considering we were pretty close to 100f less than 2 days prior. Better today but still chilly at night. 

[Xenon]

5 hours ago, Chester B said:

I hit 49F. It feels like winter considering we were pretty close to 100f less than 2 days prior. Better today but still chilly at night. 

Well you've fully acclimated to SE Texas, that's for sure 😄

Sure wish it would rain 

[Chester B]

6 hours ago, Xenon said:

Well you've fully acclimated to SE Texas, that's for sure 😄

Sure wish it would rain 

Yeah I definitely have. Anytime it’s in the upper 80s I think it’s nice weather for working outside.  Saying 50 is cold is pretty winky compared to what I grew up with. 

[Chester B]

It’s official. All the big cities in Texas are in a state of drought. El Paso included. 

[Chester B]

I see hope on the horizon. Good chances of rain starting Wednesday or Thursday and continuing for a number of days. We need it bad. 

[Xenon]

Second spring is finally here . Picked up more than an 1" in the past few days and looks like more is on the way! GROW GROW GROW

The models aren't showing any noteworthy cold/nothing below 50F deep into mid November 

[Xenon]

Been raining all day on and off in bursts, up another 2"+!!! Might just wipe out our level 2 severe drought 

[Chester B]

13 hours ago, Xenon said:

Been raining all day on and off in bursts, up another 2"+!!! Might just wipe out our level 2 severe drought 

I got rain on Wednesday of about half an inch.  A decent amount yesterday and today I've had three downpours so far.  The ground is soaking it all up like a sponge, no soggy spots, no standing water, and no runoff.  

I totally agree with you it feels like spring to me.  The smells and the birds singing is just like spring.  I can't wait to see what this does for my garden, especially the palms.

It looks like a reasonable chance of some more rain Monday/Tuesday

[ahosey01]

On 10/18/2024 at 11:32 PM, Chester B said:

It’s official. All the big cities in Texas are in a state of drought. El Paso included. 

For what it's worth down here I think we're well above our normal annual totals.  20" since the 1st of May I've recorded at my house.