Houston forecast: Severe weather threat Tuesday night

HOUSTON — Humidity has returned due to a strong southerly wind that’s persisted since Sunday across our area.

Going forward, the focus will be on the growing threat of strong to severe thunderstorms due to a developing dryline slowly sliding through Texas.

RELATED: How weather phenomenon ‘dryline’ could impact Houston this week

The Storm Prediction Center has highlighted parts of our area for severe weather potential on Tuesday and then again on Wednesday.

We’ll be monitoring two separate windows for storms to fire up across our area. The first comes Tuesday afternoon as the daytime heating coordinating with the approaching dryline will try and force the development of isolated strong to severe storms.

This development is highly dependent on if there’s enough heating to break a cap that will be in place that acts to prohibit storms from getting too strong.

The atmosphere overall will be highly unstable with breezy conditions plus humid air, the dry air along the dryline will become the trigger mechanism creating lift and storm development.

So, if the cap breaks we are much more likely to see severe weather.

That being said, how our severe threat unfolds Tuesday will have an impact on our threat for Wednesday as the cap will remain in place.

If the cap does indeed break and we see storms Tuesday, then we are likely to see a second round Wednesday.

This is a highly fluid forecast and will change, it’s best to monitor the forecast and remain weather aware both Tuesday and Wednesday.

The dryline will slosh east and west for a few days before a cold front diving in from the Rockies gives it a good shove south and into the Gulf of Mexico. As a result, we will get one day, Thursday, with lower humidity and beautiful weather. That cold front will be on the move again though, this time as a warm front drifting north through our area on Friday into the Easter weekend with hot, humid weather returning and the risk of a few showers, too.

The rain will be a welcome sight for two reasons: One, we are so dry and drought conditions are expanding by the day across Texas. Two, helping to wash out ridiculously high pollen levels. Expect a bit of some relief from these numbers soon.

RELATED: Pollen counts breaking records in Houston

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