We are in for an eventful two weeks of weather here in southeast Texas as a powerful weather system spins over the Plains and an arctic cold front arrives ahead of Christmas weekend.
A cold front that brought a few severe storms to SE Texas Tuesday will bring isolated to widely scattered rain showers through Wednesday morning, so expect some wet streets and rainy windshields on the drive in to work and school.
Temperatures will drop into the 50s during the morning, then highs should only top out in the low to mid 60s. Sunshine is expect to return during the afternoon with a clear sky and colder weather coming Wednesday night.
How cold will it get behind the cold front?
The cold front pushing through Wednesday morning will drop highs into the 60s Wednesday and Thursday. Another push of cold air comes late Thursday dropping lows into the 30s over the weekend. It will mark a pattern change that could bring chilly weather all the way to Christmas Day. In fact, an arctic cold front is possible late next week.
An arctic cold front?! Will this be a repeat of the February 2021 winter storm? And could we have a white Christmas?
It’s too early to know exactly how we will be impacted by next week’s arctic cold front, but a hard freeze and wintry precipitation are certainly possible. Bitter cold air from Siberia is expected to come across the arctic circle into Canada and the United States early next week. There is a moderately strong signal that this cold air will plunge into Texas, but we still don’t know how cold it will get and whether or not any moisture will be available to generate wintry precip. We just want to give you an early heads up that things could turn severely cold by Christmas weekend with the arctic chill arriving in Houston as early as Thursday, December 22nd. For now we are calling for our first freeze of the season by Christmas weekend with lows in the 20s and 30s.