Cold Start, Warmer Midweek
April 6th, 2009 by BurtonChilly breezes with gusts near 40mph will be blowing through the day, so plan on jackets or at least some sleeves! We’ll go from morning 40s to daytime low 60s today then down to a light freeze tonight through early Tuesday before rebounding to 80s in a few days.
Sunday’s cold front made some real impact on our area! After reaching 87 in Austin Saturday, we only topped 71 yesterday and today feel about 10 degree cooler at the warmest. Winds finally calm down tonight and, under clear skies, offer us a rare April freeze. Rare enough that we might break some records for lows temps on April 7:
Waco 32 (2007)
Austin-Bergstrom 34 ( 2007)
Camp Mabry 34 (2007)
The latest April freeze on Austin history books since the late 1800s: 30 on April 1, 1926. (The previously reported all-time April low of 31 from 1977 had been listed by the Climate Data Center for only the last 30 years.)
Warmer southwesterly winds return tomorrow afternoon, elevating daytime temps into the low 70s. Then we’ll feel noticeably warmer Wednesday and Thursday as 80s return, possibly some high 80s again Thursday ahead of a cold front. It offers our next chance of storms, a 20% probability.
The polar jet stream’s running high in Canada now, allowing a disturbance we see swirling off the coast of California to move eastward very slowly. It’ll finally cross in the Plains by Thursday, we believe, with that next front. Another disturbance follows but appears to take more aim at Texas by Saturday.
Easter Weekend… That’s right, rainshowers and thunderstorms become possible just as travelers hit the road for Easter. A 20% chance Saturday rises to 30% Sunday. As of now, it appears some strong storms may develop an especially affect the Hill Country, but it’s still too far out to tell when and where for sure. Stay tuned as we track this storm. Sunday sunrise, by the way, comes at 7:07am.
Check out full details on the 8-day forecast.
Enjoy your Monday.
Meteorologist
Burton Fitzsimmons
