HOUSTON – We made it to the second half of March, and St. Patrick’s weekend was full of wild weather.
From severe storms to fires to snow, the system that moved through over the weekend will be in the weather history books.
Take a look at all the watches, warnings, and advisories that spanned from one side of the country to the other on Friday.
Houston, thankfully, remained mostly unscathed, but others were not so lucky.
Overnight Friday into Saturday in College Station, for instance, was hit with back-to-back rapidly strengthening severe storms that formed just two counties to the west, in Lee County. As the storms moved over College Station, they dropped 1″-3″ inch hail stones, creating numerous dents and shattering windows of uncovered cars.
TanyaMW
3 am call from daughter in College station. Damage to car and rental home
Out to our north and east, tornado warnings spanned from Louisiana to Illinois/Indiana and along the Deep South and Tennessee Valley.
All-in-all, over 200 tornado warnings took place between Friday evening and Saturday. Several of these storms produced strong tornadoes.
On the backside of that same low-pressure system, snowfall occurred in the Midwest and Upper Plains, but there were also gusty winds and extremely dry conditions - especially closer to home.
The gusty winds coupled with the low humidity caused Red Flag Warnings and Fire Weather Watches to be in place throughout the first half of the weekend.
Fires sparked up in the Lone Star state in several locations. Two of the biggest fires include the Windmill Fire in the panhandle and the Crabapple Fire in the northern portion of Fredericksburg. Both fires are still ongoing.
The Windmill fire, which is northeast of Amarillo, is currently burning at 23,417 acres and is 95% contained.
The Crabapple fire, sitting even closer to Houston, is currently burning at 9,737 acres and is only 65% contained.
Track the fires here!
With the lack of water, resources, and continued gusty winds, it has been difficult to deal with completely containing the fires.
Strong winds and low humidity remain, Red Flag Warnings remain in effect for most of the western half of Texas through 10 p.m. Monday.
So, how can this impact your St. Patrick’s Day forecast?
Monday is going to be pleasant for those St. Patrick’s Day festivities!
We’ve seen our winds shift to the south, which will begin to bring moisture back into Houston. Until then, we will feel a lot drier and more comfortable.
With less moisture throughout the atmosphere overhead, we’re cloud-free this afternoon. This will allow us to warm up to the lower 80s when we get into the later afternoon.
With the low humidity and breezy winds, Houston still has the chance of moderate to high levels of fire danger on Monday.