Chilly out there today with clouds streaming in on a southwest flow out of the Pacific Ocean.  While the overcast skies may be annoying seeing as how we haven't had a decent sunny day in a few weeks now -- the track of those clouds is promising to bring a decent shot of rain our way overnight and into Thursday morning.  

Cloudy and Cool:

With a deck of mid-to-high level clouds moving across the Brazos Valley today, not much hope in warming up too terribly much.  Cool air will be trapped under the clouds along with a light north to northeast wind, so highs will be lucky to top the mid-to-upper 50s by 4pm.  Evening plans look free and clear of issues weather-wise -- however, bundle up before heading out.

A Soggy Night Ahead:

While visions of sugar plums are dancing in our heads, the westward approach of an upper-level trough through Mexico and West Texas will bring up our rain chances significantly after 10pm.  Many of our computer models over the past several days has painted the picture of a good batch of rain moving though the area, so it is not out of the question to see 0.5" to 1.0" of rain area wide.  A few locations could even score big and pick up around 1.25" should multiple showers stream overhead through the night.  While there could be a few rumbles of thunder with any storms that develop, the threat of severe weather is unlikely here in the Brazos Valley.  Here is how the PinPoint forecast depicts the night playing out:

Should the rain come together as the models are seeing it (and I think that it will) most of the soggy weather should occur between 2am and 6am.  That being said, umbrellas will likely be needed on the way out the door Thursday morning and we'll have to be on the lookout of slick streets and possibly even a few low lying areas that could have some ponding of water over the roadway.

Cross your fingers things work out for the better as the extended forecast looks to put much of Texas back into a dry pattern heading into the New Year.

Questionable Christmas Outlook:

For the past several days, our extended models have gone from a wide spread light rain on Christmas day to a dry weekend to now bringing up rain chances on Christmas Eve.  The official forecast, at this time, will keep rain chances out of the picture -- however, stand by as we evaluate the handling of our next upper level system. One constant that does look certain is a chilly weekend ahead.  Thursday will find highs warming into the low 60s after morning rain, but highs in the 30s across the Panhandle tomorrow indicate another front that will keep chilly air around through the holiday.  More on this in tomorrow's blog -- see you then.