Lower temperatures, isolated storms this weekend in North Texas
NORTH TEXAS – We expect a hurricane to hit the Texas coastline early Monday. Isolated storms this weekend but much better storms chances for most of next week. By Tuesday, the remnants of Beryl might be overhead.
Wow. It rained for the first time in more than three weeks. Ever since the summer solstice, North Texas has been running hot. Every day 4° to 7° above normal. It hit 100° (exactly) a total of six times. Then today happened.
The last of the rain is winding down just as the evening was winding up. We expect some afternoon thunderstorms Saturday and Sunday. Highs will slip back into the 90s.
Notice Monday. Yet another cold front comes into north Texas and produces widespread rain. On the same day we are expecting Hurricane Beryl to be hitting the Texas coastline to our south.
There remains lots of uncertainty about Beryl's path. It cleared the Yucatan at the end of the day, diminished down to a tropical storm (65 mph winds so still some punch). It will reorganize out in open water. The Gulf has record high sea surface temperatures. We are worried Beryl might act a little like Hurricane Harvey (2017).
Like Beryl, Harvey came off the Yucatan as a tropical wave. It spun up into a Category 4 hurricane by the time it hit Texas 2.5 days later. It also encountered unusually warm gulf water and was not forecast to be that strong. Harvey was the most powerful hurricane to hit Texas in 56 years. It is the costliest weather disaster in Texas history. It produced the biggest tropical rain event in American history.
The Gulf of Mexico is warmer now than it was 2017. So, yes, we are concerned and watching Beryl by the hour across the weekend.
On Monday, another cold front moves into North Texas bringing rain chances and cooler weather. We are expecting the rains from Beryl to arrive on Tuesday and Wednesday. All-in-all, a wet week ahead.
No 100° days in the 7-day forecast. Nice to leave the 10 days-in-a-row of heat alerts behind.