High Winds Likely Area-Wide on Sunday

A cool front will bring very strong and gusty winds to the local area for an extended time period on Sunday.

At this time we expect West to Northwest winds to increase to around 30 mph on a sustained basis starting in the pre-dawn hours of Sunday morning and continuing into much of the day.  Frequent wind gusts of 40-50 mph are likely starting between 7-9am on Sunday and continuing through about 2-3pm.

Several peak wind gusts of 50-55 mph are also possible across the local area on Sunday, especially from roughly 9am-2pm.  Please note that the potential for higher peak gusts of 50-55 mph will be highest in more open areas with a direct exposure to a West or Northwest wind.  Gusts in other, more sheltered, areas will likely remain in the 40-50 mph range.

Winds of this magnitude will easily blow around loose, light to medium weight objects, and such objects should be fully secured by Saturday evening.  High profile vehicles will also have increased difficulty with travel, especially on East-West roads and especially during the expected peak wind period of 9am-2pm on Sunday.

Present indications suggest that winds will diminish rather rapidly starting between 3-4pm and into the late afternoon/early evening hours on Sunday. 

Update on Thunderstorm Activity for Late Tonight/Early Monday...

A cold front will combine with several upper-level weather disturbances to produce periods of scattered to numerous showers and scattered thunderstorms across the local area especially from this afternoon through midday on Monday.

A scattered shower or an isolated thunderstorm is possible anytime from now through Monday.  At this time, we expect an uptick in scattered showers, and possibly an isolated thunderstorm or two, across the local area starting this afternoon. Most of the activity this afternoon across the local area will be in the form of light to moderate showers, with any thunderstorms likely to be rather small in size and relatively isolated in coverage.

Further to the West of the local area, scattered to numerous thunderstorms will develop in west-central and southwest Texas later this afternoon into this evening. This activity will attempt to move Eastward into the local region during the pre-dawn hours on Monday (generally between 1-2 a.m. and 5-6 a.m.) but at this time there is considerable uncertainty as to whether the activity will continue to hold together as it moves further East across the Hill Country and toward the local area. Present indications suggest the activity will weak considerably and possibly even start to break up (decrease in coverage) as it approaches the area late tonight/early Monday morning. With this in mind, at this time it appears that at least an uptick in showers can be expected again locally during the pre-dawn and into the mid-morning hours on Monday, with a few scattered thunderstorms also possible during that time. The chance for thunderstorm activity will increase as you move into Western parts of the local area (to the West of I-35).

Although thunderstorm activity does not currently look to be widespread for the local area, locally heavy downpours of rain will be possible with any scattered thunderstorm activity across the local area. Rainfall of around 1 inch to possibly as much as 2 inches is possible in association with any scattered thunderstorm activity, but again, for the local area this currently appears to be a scattered type proposition rather than a widespread one. Elsewhere, in association with showers, rainfall amounts of around 0.5 inch or so would be more common across most of the area.

Update on Sunday p.m. into Monday a.m.

A scattered shower or an isolated thunderstorm is possible anytime from Sunday afternoon into Monday. At this time, we expect an uptick in scattered showers, and possibly an isolated thunderstorm, across the local area on Sunday afternoon. Most of this activity on Sunday afternoon across the local area will be in the form of light to moderate showers, with any thunderstorms likely to be rather small in size and isolated in coverage.

Further to the West of the local area, scattered to numerous thunderstorms will develop in west-central and southwest Texas late on Sunday afternoon into Sunday evening. This activity will attempt to move Eastward into the local region during the pre-dawn and early morning hours on Monday, but at this time there is considerable doubt as to whether the activity will hold together as it moves further East across the Hill Country and toward the local area. At this time it appears that at least an uptick in scattered showers can be expected again locally during the pre-dawn and into the mid-morning hours on Monday. A few scattered thunderstorms will also be possible, especially as you move into Western parts of the local area (to the West of I-35).

Although thunderstorm activity does not currently look to be widespread for the local area, locally heavy downpours of rain will be possible with any such activity. Rainfall of 1-2 inches would certainly be possible in association with any thunderstorm activity, but again, for the local area this currently appears to be a scattered type proposition rather than a widespread one. Elsewhere, in association with showers, rainfall amounts of 0.5 inch or less would be more common across most of the area.