Updated 130pm CDT Wednesday / 02 May 2012

…. A Stable Atmosphere Means Little Chance of Rain ….
…. Late Night and Early Morning Cloudiness with an Otherwise Partly Cloudy Sky ….
…. Watching the Potential for a Cold Front Next Week ….

On this Wednesday… surface high pressure is centered over the southwestern north Atlantic Ocean off the southeastern coast of the USA. A trough.. or line.. of low pressure extending southward from eastern Colorado and western Kansas into the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles and further south into southwest Texas and northern Mexico.  There is a weak cold front extending southwestward from western Iowa into the Oklahoma panhandle. As a result, a southerly surface wind is blowing across our area.

In the upper levels of the atmosphere, a rather benign zonal (west-to-east) upper level wind flow persists across Texas. As a result of the upper air wind flow, the upper level winds are light to moderate west southwesterly over Texas.

Little change as predicted as the active jet stream pattern remains well to our north with fronts not expected to make much headway southward into Texas over the next seven days. Even though there is still considerable uncertainty.. some longer range models and predictions try to bring a cold front southward into Texas by the middle part of next week. I’m still not sold on this.. but it appears that I will be introducing a slim rain chance for the middle part of next week. I’ll continue to monitor.

Extensive late night and early morning low cloudiness will occur over the coming days with some light drizzle possible along the IH35 corridor. Otherwise expect a partly to mostly cloudy sky. The south southeasterly surface winds will continue with additional  return of low level moisture through the remainder of the week into the weekend with afternoon temperatures continuing above seasonable levels.

My forecast confidence continues high to very high through the week and through next weekend and into early next week. By the middle part of next week.. in reference to a possible advancement of a cold front into the area and any associated rain chances.. my forecast confidence falls to medium.

For Austin and south central Texas… tonight will see a partly cloudy sky with low clouds thickening after midnight. Lows around 70. Southerly wind. For tomorrow, it’ll be partly cloudy after morning low clouds. Highs around 90 with a southerly wind.

Have a good Wednesday night and Thursday…
Meteorologist Troy Kimmel