Another Day, Another Band of Storms in Texas

A nasty band of storms will fire this afternoon across Central Texas with a lot of lightning, hail and strong wind gusts. Storms will spread east, but are expected to lose a lot of steam as they move towards Houston this evening. However, a couple storms could stay pretty strong and lead to some localized impacts of frequent lightning, strong wind gusts and hail. The hail risk is higher than normal thanks to some cold air higher up in the atmosphere. Storms should move in after sunset (should be a good light show off to the west/northwest) and before midnight. A few showers could linger through Saturday morning thanks to an upper level disturbance, but much of the area will dry out prior to sunrise Saturday. I'm thinking they'll be enough rain to cancel soccer games.

Most of the storms will push offshore with mainly rain effecting Louisiana Saturday morning. Depending on the exact track of the heaviest storms, you could see a few thunderstorms Saturday morning or early afternoon in southern LA. The stronger and closer to the LA coast the thunderstorms occur offshore, the lower chances of thunderstorms inland over LA. More sun and warmer conditions (thunderstorms over the Gulf not effecting inland weather) the better chance of thunderstorm development Saturday. Things will dry out by mid afternoon Saturday...likely earlier for most locals

Maybe the biggest weather story through early next week might be the temperatures. They'll be well below normal for late Spring. the first day of May will probably have low temperatures around 10 degrees below normal. Highs Saturday could be near 20 degrees below normal. The long range forecasts points towards a continued cool (relatively) pattern through the next week or two. Enjoy it while it lasts.