Updated 545am CDT Friday / 12 July 2013
…. A Dry Weather Pattern As We Wrap Up The Week ….
…. A Slim Chance of Rain by Next Week ….
On this Friday morning…. surface high pressure is located over the Gulf of Mexico. A line.. or trough.. of low pressure is over southern and central New Mexico southward over far west Texas near El Paso. A stationary front extends from northern Georgia and northern Alabama westward through southern Arkansas to the Red River country of north Texas and southern Oklahoma then northwestward into a surface low over southeastern Colorado. Given this surface pressure pattern, surface winds are southerly across our area.
In the upper levels of the atmosphere… a large area of upper air high pressure.. acting like a lid on the atmosphere.. is over the western southern plains and westward over the southwestern USA. Troughs.. or lines.. of upper air low pressure are over the northwestern and western USA as well as over the eastern Great Lakes and the northeastern USA southward through the eastern quarter of the USA. As a result of this upper air pattern, winds over south central Texas and the Austin metro area about 18,000 feet above the ground are northeasterly 10 to 20 mph.
Upper level high pressure area.. to our north and west.. continues to dominate our weather with a dry summer weather pattern expected over the next few days. Temperatures will continue to be at or above 100 degrees today and through the first part of the weekend.
Slowly, but surely, a slightly more unstable air mass will take hold across the area by late Sunday into next week. I will continue to trend afternoon high temperatures down a degrees or two and will add the mention of isolated to widely scattered rain showers and thunderstorms for the afternoon into evening hours Monday into Tuesday and Wednesday.
The remnants of the tropical cyclone Chantal are moving northward across Cuba and the Bahamas and the southwest North Atlantic. The system is being monitored for possible development over the next few days as it moves through the Bahamas.
Have a good weekend…
Meteorologist Troy Kimmel
Contact me:
tkimmel@austin.utexas.edu
http://www.facebook.com/troykimmel