Okay, campers, rise and shine, and don’t neglect your booties ’trigger it’s cooooold on the market right this moment! Not like 1993’s “Groundhog Day,” this may quickly be a distant reminiscence as we heat up heading into subsequent week. However within the meantime, it’s our coldest morning since February of 2021. Houston has up to now bottomed out at 16°, and the coldest studying I can discover as of 6:30 AM is 10° up in New Waverly. I additionally noticed an 11 simply outdoors Tomball. Regardless of the case, it’s about 10 to twenty levels in most locations this morning, and it’s chilly.
The wind isn’t serving to. We proceed to see wind gusts up as excessive as 33 mph in Houston at Passion Airport and 39 mph in Galveston. The mix of wind and chilly makes it really feel about as brutal as it might probably realistically get right here in Houston. Wind chills are at the moment 5° in Galveston, 3° at Bush Airport, 1° at Passion Airport, and -4° in Conroe.
So earlier than you exit and do this final minute Christmas purchasing, please be sure you are adequately dressed. Such a chilly might be harmful, particularly for these of us in Texas which can be merely not used to temperatures at these ranges.
The excellent news is that roads needs to be all clear and satisfactory, as we noticed no ice or snow with the entrance yesterday. Journey wherever throughout Texas is okay right this moment. In case you are flying, please go together with plenty of endurance. Flights to Chicago are prone to be delayed. Milwaukee’s airport is at the moment closed. All of those points will cascade by the system, so flight delays and cancellations are potential wherever.
Some excellent news is that ERCOT is in tremendous form this morning. As of this writing, Texans are utilizing about 73,000 megawatts (MW) of electrical energy, and the grid has almost 85,000 MW obtainable. In accordance with their web site, issues do get somewhat tighter wanting this night, as wind falls off versus the place it was final evening and this morning. As of now, we don’t foresee any severe points, however provided that they did not forecast the amplitude of the power demand final evening and this morning (they missed by a number of thousand megawatts), it’s value monitoring later right this moment.
Centerpoint is reporting simply shy of 20,000 clients with out energy this morning. This is because of localized outages from tree branches or energy traces being impacted by the robust winds in our space. That quantity ought to enhance by the day as winds ease up.
Friday
The excellent news is that the solar will assist make it really feel just a bit much less uncomfortable right this moment. Nonetheless, count on excessive temperatures barely scraping 30 levels in most locations. The freeze continues.
Winds will stay blustery right this moment, with gusts of 20 mph inland and 30 mph on the coast. So wind chills will stay an element all day right this moment as nicely.
Tonight & Saturday
Most of our consideration has been centered on this morning’s temperatures as a result of they have been to be the coldest of this occasion. However tonight will likely be fairly tough as nicely. Fortunately, we’ll see much less wind, however we’ll nonetheless possible have a tough freeze nearly in every single place, so maintain all protecting measures for pipes, vegetation, individuals, pets, and livestock in place. Some passing cloud cowl could forestall temperatures from dropping so far as they did final evening and this morning, however it’ll nonetheless be a lot chilly.
Saturday ought to find yourself being a barely nicer day. Count on solely a light-weight breeze, extra sunshine, and temperatures warming above freezing and deep into the 30s.
Sunday & Monday
Christmas Day will likely be one other chilly one, however we’ll be regularly consuming away on the chilly. Solely outlying areas actually have a threat for a big laborious freeze Sunday morning, whereas most of Houston correct, coastal areas, and a number of the denser suburbs will in all probability “solely” get to the mid-20s in a single day. We’ll flip issues up into the 40s on Christmas afternoon.
We could get a weak reinforcing entrance on Monday. Nonetheless, we’ll possible get above 50 levels Monday afternoon. We’ll have one other chilly evening Monday evening into Tuesday with 30s in most spots and maybe a number of excessive 20s in outlying areas.
Remainder of subsequent week
Tuesday will see highs within the 50s or low-60s, Wednesday within the 60s or low-70s, and Thursday into the 70s. In actual fact, we’ll in all probability see highs within the 60s and 70s and lows within the 50s or 60s straight by New Years weekend. The climate could flip extra unsettled late subsequent week as nicely, however particulars on which can be minimal this far out. We’ll sort out that subsequent week.
