Updated 930am CDT Friday / 7 September 2012
… The Last Day of Above Average Temps For a Few Days …
… Cold Front Due Just Before Sunrise Tomorrow with a Slim Chance of Rain …
… Windy.. Less Humid and a Little Cooler Tomorrow …
On this Friday… surface high pressure is over the lower Mississippi Valley. A cold front is moving southward from Kansas/Oklahoma border westward into northeastern New Mexico. An area of low pressure is over the north central Gulf of Mexico. As a result of this surface pattern, a southerly surface wind is prevailing across our area.
In the upper levels of the atmosphere, a upper high pressure ridge, acting like a lid on the atmosphere, is situated from Texas westward into the southwestern USA and is showing signs of shifting westward away from Texas as an area of upper air low pressure deepens over the central and eastern USA. As a result of this upper air wind flow, the upper level winds overhead are generally light and variable over our area but will become more northwesterly and strengthen by tonight into Saturday.
As the upper air pattern changes across the USA over the next few days and our northwesterly winds aloft increase, the surface cold front to our north will sweep southeastward through our area of Texas by early tomorrow morning. The situation.. due to time of day and the expected atmospheric moisture profile.. will not be favorable for precipitation.
In the wake of the cold front, skies will clear with gusty northerly wind.. lower humidity and slightly cooler temperatures for tomorrow into tomorrow night. Winds will decrease by Sunday but the cooler and drier continuing Monday as the surface high pressure behind the front builds into the area from the north northwest.
Please note that the gusty northerly wind following the cold front early tomorrow.. combined with the dry vegetation and low humidity… will create high wildfire danger for tomorrow into tomorrow evening. As a result, the NWS/Austin-San Antonio has issued a Fire Weather Watch for the area.
For Austin and south central Texas… tonight will see a mostly clear sky with low clouds late with lows in the 70s with a south southwesterly wind 5 to 12 mph. For tomorrow, Partly cloudy early.. mostly sunny by afternoon. Windy.. cooler and less humid with highs around 90 with a northerly wind 10 to 20 mph and gusty.
Have a good Friday night and Saturday…
Meteorologist Troy Kimmel
Contact me:
tkimmel@mail.utexas.edu
http://www.facebook.com/troykimmel