Updated 845am CDT Friday / 26 April 2013

Warmer Temps and Even a Few Storms Over the Weekend ….
Another Strong Cold Front on Tap for Middle of Next Week ….

On this Friday morning…. a warm front is lifting northward across south Texas. Given this surface pressure pattern, surface winds are southeasterly across our area of the state.

In the upper levels of the atmosphere…. a broad trough.. or line.. of upper level low pressure is situated over the eastern half of the USA. In addition, an upper level low trough.. or line of low pressure.. is moving eastward over the southwestern USA. Given this upper air pattern, winds over south central Texas and the Austin metro area about 18,000 feet above the ground are westerly 15 to 25 mph.

The shallow layer of surface based chilly air has broken up and is being shifted back northward as a warm front comes northward across south Texas. As this occurs,  surface winds have returned southeasterly allowed abundant low level moisture and much warmer temperatures to return to our area.

Today and tonight and continuing into the weekend, an upper level low pressure disturbance over the southwestern USA will weaken as it moves west southwest to east northeast well north of our local area. This will allow for another weak cold front to move southward into south central Texas on Saturday before it weakens and washes out. As a result of the atmospheric lift associated with the weakening front and the passing upper air disturbance, we could see isolated rain showers and thunderstorms locally with the possibility of one or two of those thunderstorms becoming strong.

You can expect a little more sunshine a continuation of the warmer temperatures for Sunday into the middle part of next week when a strong cold front moves through the area by late next Wednesday afternoon into Wednesday night with scattered rain showers and thunderstorms.

Have a good Friday night and Saturday…
Meteorologist Troy Kimmel

Contact me:

tkimmel@austin.utexas.edu
http://www.facebook.com/troykimmel