Quiet and cool weather in the forecast for a while

Thursday’s severe weather pummeled North and East Texas with strong wind gusts, hail, even some minor flooding, but Central Texas escaped with some decent rainfall totals and a few scrapes from large hail around Fort Hood, Copperas Cove, and Killeen. Although severe weather season is kicking off, we’re finished with severe weather until the next chance arrives late next week. Until our next storm system arrives, we’re dealing with what’s likely the last gasp of winter this weekend. Temperatures today through the weekend and even into early next week will be over 10° colder than average and sunshine is going to be hard to come by. This morning, we’re still dealing with lingering rain behind yesterday’s front. Widely scattered light showers hang around for the first part of our morning but the rain coverage starts to decrease after 9 AM and we’ll likely all be dry by lunch time. Temperatures starting out in the upper 30s and low-to-mid 40s this morning are feeling colder thanks to a north wind that’ll gust between 20 and 30 MPH today. Morning wind chills are in the 30s but those nippy wind chills will rise to the low 50s later today. Highs this afternoon will warm into the mid-50s too.

Clouds are going to stay stuck in place throughout the weekend. We may see some peeks of sunshine here and there, but we’ll generally stay mostly cloudy. The clouds will keep our morning temperatures “warmer” Saturday, but another push of cooler air Saturday night will drop temperatures more. Saturday’s mid-to-upper 50s for highs will drop into the mid-30s for lows Sunday morning with highs only reaching the upper 40s and low 50s. IF we’re going to see freezing temperatures in the morning, the most likely day for that to happen is Monday morning. Sub-freezing temperatures Sunday morning are possible on a more isolated basis in rural and low lying areas, but many spots near and west of I-35 could start out the work week with freezing temperatures.

Spring DOES start on Monday despite the chilly morning lows and the cool afternoon highs. We’re likely again stuck with mostly cloudy skies Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and even Friday, but the return of south winds Tuesday through when our next front arrives should boost our highs into the mid-60s Tuesday, into the mid-70s Wednesday, and then maybe get our highs close to 80° Thursday. A few light showers are possible next week Monday through Wednesday but we’re generally staying dry until our next front arrives either Thursday or Friday. While we’re still fine-tuning the details on which day the front actually moves through, strong storms are going to be possible with the front and a quarter-to-half inch of rain could fall.