Updated 845am CDT Wednesday / 13 March 2013
A Dry and Stable Late Winter Weather Pattern…
On this Wednesday… a surface high pressure area is over central and north Texas northward into the plains states. A weakening cold front runs east-to-west across south Texas around Corpus Christi. Given this surface pressure pattern, surface winds are east northeasterly across our area of Texas.
In the upper levels of the atmosphere, a broad upper air trough.. or line.. is located over the eastern half of the country. As a result of this upper air wind flow, our upper level winds are light northwesterly with winds over Austin at about 18,500 feet blowing about 20 to 25 mph.
The surface high.. overhead of the area.. will continue to move eastward into the Mississippi Valley and southeastern USA. South southeasterly surface winds will quickly return to the area by later today into tonight and continuing into Thursday. Low level moisture will begin the return to the area with attendant late night and early morning low cloud cover by as early as Friday night into Saturday morning. This will continue.. with increased cloud cover and humidity.. through the weekend and into early next week.
Another cold front… this one rather weak in nature.. is forecast to drift southward into our area by Monday night into Tuesday morning. The upper air conditions do not appear favorable to push this front much further south than the IH10 corridor with the front lifting back northward as a warm front by Tuesday night into Wednesday. At this point, limited moisture.. instability and atmospheric lift will preclude any rain chances.
Have a good Wednesday night and Thursday…
Meteorologist Troy Kimmel
Contact me:
tkimmel@austin.utexas.edu
http://www.facebook.com/troykimmel