Hopefully, you’ve heard that our Mother’s Day weekend is going to bring a motherload of heat!
Storms expected Thursday will push east by Friday. That opens the door for a strong southwest wind to kick in over the weekend. Why is that so hot? Because when you compress air, you heat it up. The mountains in West Texas and Mexico range from 2,500 to 8000 feet, so that air traveling down those mountains toward us compresses and gets hot! It is also dry air and it’s easier to heat up dry air than humid air. Here’s a synoptic map for the weekend where I’ve drawn in the southwest flow:
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So just how hot is it supposed to be? Depends on who you ask! I’m convinced that everyone searches the internet for those answers until they get the answer they want! Right now, my forecast is more in line with the National Weather Service, which is to say RECORD HEAT. But some of the national forecasting companies are more in line with the European and American models which go into the upper 90s. AccuWeather even predicts 100° Sunday! I will say that models do not do that well with temperatures and tend to forecast too low and too high. The human skill set is important with forecasts!
Saying that, I made an UPDATED chart for you. Keep in mind the average high this weekend for Houston is 85° with records of 94° Saturday and 96° Sunday.
So that southwest wind is a dry wind with lower humidity, forecast to be around 45-48% -- that is enough with those temperatures to get us to Feels Like temps, or Heat Index Values, of 104-105!
The bottom line is that it’s going to be the hottest weekend we’ve had this year. So take precautions:
Never leave anyone or pets in a hot car! Look how fast the inside of a car can heat up given the outdoor temperature:
All of the forecast temperatures for this weekend will likely change one way or another, especially once we get a look at the atmosphere after tomorrow’s storms. The message will not change -- a hot weekend that can be deadly if you’re not careful. So keep mom nice and cool!
Frank