Hot, humid, and rain-free through the 4th of July - But changes are on the horizon

We may now be in a new month, but the same extremely hot and humid conditions have continued for yet another day across Central Texas, and unfortunately, there’s not a whole lot changing to our weather through the 4th of July holiday… BUT there are signs that our weather pattern may finally be changing as we head into the weekend! Overnight, the same warm temperatures continue. The one change is that our winds will begin to increase overnight and could gust up to 20 mph. Waking up Wednesday morning, lows will be down into the upper 70s under mostly clear skies. Wednesday afternoon features another dose of sunshine with near triple digit temperatures returning for Central Texas, but with the high humidity remaining in place, especially for those near and east of I-35, we’ll feel more like 103° up to 108°! We can hit copy and paste as the same weather conditions that we saw today, and will see again on Wednesday, will be here again on Thursday for the 4th of July.  No rain is in the forecast through the 4th of July, so you’ll need to keep practicing heat safety!

We’ll finally start to see a shift in the upper-level weather pattern, and believe it or not, a cold front is set to push into North Texas Friday and then sink slowly into our area Friday evening and Saturday before stalling out across the state. This front will not only help to drop our temperatures for a few days, but it could also produce some rain late this week and into the upcoming weekend! A few stronger storms are possible, but we’re generally just going to see a few run-of-the-mills storms with occasional downpours, lightning, and gusty winds. As the front moves in, it should stall out near or just south of our area which means we’ll be on the “cool” side of the front. Temperatures should dip into the mid-to-upper 90s Friday and then drop into the low-to-mid 90s this weekend, and could stay that cool through early next week. Rain totals at this time are still uncertain as the confidence in the extended forecast is remaining a bit low… We’ll have to watch that front and potentially the tropics as well to nail down the specifics on how much rain Central Texas could see, but it’s always a good thing when we have rain in the forecast throughout the hot and typically very dry summer months!

Speaking of the tropics, here’s the latest on Hurricane Beryl. Hurricane Beryl strengthened late Monday night to become the season’s first category 5 hurricane and also became the earliest category 5 storm in history for the Atlantic Basin. While Beryl still doesn’t pose an immediate threat to the United States, what happens with Beryl this weekend will determine whether or not a notably weaker Beryl may bring Texas rain late this weekend and early next week. Hurricane Beryl is set to slowly weaken as it pushes westward across the Caribbean Sea, but it’ll still likely be a major hurricane as it passes by Jamaica Wednesday and it still should be a hurricane as it approaches and potentially makes landfall in the Yucatan Peninsula Friday. After Friday, Beryl should continue to weaken but may gather some strength as it moves into the Bay of Campeche and the western Gulf of Mexico. Depending on exactly how far our weekend cold front pushes through the state, that front could either help keep Beryl moving westward, potentially making a second Mexico landfall along Mexico’s East Coast and keeping the rain away, BUT should the front not sink as far into the state, there will be a window of opportunity for Beryl to crawl northward early-to-mid week next week. It’s far too early for specifics in that regard, but Beryl should be MUCH WEAKER this weekend and early next week. Should Beryl move into South Texas, there’s a pretty decent chance it’ll push northward up I-35 and could bring us some early-to-mid week rain next week and some cooler temperatures too. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you in the loop.

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