More Storms On the Way to Texas!

After over a foot of rain fell across part of the Rio Grande Valley on Thursday, folks down south are ready for a break from the rain. The rest of the state, meanwhile, is eager to join in on the action. Unfortunately, many will not see much rain over the next several days, but those of you across the eastern third of Texas are in for active weather.

We note that a tornado watch has been issued for East Texas and Southeast Texas through the early evening hours. A few storms may be capable of producing brief tornadoes, with the threat diminishing after 7 PM. Otherwise, we’ ll see rain chances end from west to east by tonight.

Saturday will be a windy and warm day across Texas. There is a very low chance of an isolated severe storm east of the dry line in Texoma, North Texas, and Central Texas late Saturday afternoon into the early evening hours. That possibility (under 15 percent) could result in very large hail and localized damaging wind gusts. The most likely scenario is for a cap (lid on the atmosphere) to prevent storm development south of the Red River on Saturday.

A cool front will move southeast into Texas on Sunday. As the front moves into the eastern third of the state Sunday afternoon, scattered thunderstorms will develop across Northeast Texas, East Texas, and Southeast Texas. The environment is expected to support organized, intense storms capable of producing very large hail and damaging winds. Low- level wind shear does not appear particularly strong, and the tornado risk currently looks very low. Storm chances will continue into Sunday evening before ending that night. Cooler weather is expected across the northern two- thirds of Texas on Monday, with high temperatures in the 60 s and 70 s.

Monday and Tuesday look to be ‘down days’ in the thunderstorm department, with a rapid warm- up back into the 80 s and 90 s across Texas by Tuesday. Our next chance of thunderstorms, similar to Sunday’ s setup, looks to arrive on Wednesday across the eastern third of Texas once again. Some of those storms could be severe, and we’ ll focus on that setup once we’ re past this weekend. Active weather looks to continue into the first week of April.