We know Houston gets hot, but even the most stalwart may be feeling like a duck out of water these days! Why is it so hot? We have in place what is called an omega blocking pattern -- low pressure on either side of the country with a big High in the middle. That high produces the relentlessly dry, sunny, hot days and blocks any front from moving through which might cool us down. Here’s the pattern and below I’ve drawn in the Greek letter omega so you get an idea of that resemblance:
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These are fairly common each year but this one is strong which means it’s hotter and harder to move. There is a chance we see the high shift to the southeast this weekend allowing a weak front stationary front to at least get close to us on Sunday. Thus, we can hope for a sprinkle or two on Saturday and Sunday (don’t cancel any plans--we’re not talking much). You can see that in our 10-day:
And it doesn’t last long as the climate forecast for mid-month has us with higher than average temperatures:
And while this is just an unfortunate pattern in place, our trend since 1970 is to see warmer springs. Climate Central sent this out over the weekend:
I’m feeling pretty certain this month will end up the warmest May on record. I wouldn’t give up hope though -- patterns do change. Tropical weather often changes them and we could still get back to our averages where June feels like June!
Frank