CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — While upper-air high pressure prevents rain, the excessive heat and drought have left inland Coastal Bend areas prone to wildfire danger, and the steady onshore flow has elevated rip current risk. You can expect afternoon ambient temperatures from the upper 90s to lower 100s through most of next week, which is 4 to 6 degrees above normal for this time of year.
Overnight readings in the lower 80s are about 4 degrees above normal, as well. However, the peak afternoon heat index values of 116 to 124 degrees are virtually unprecedented historically. Excessive Heat Warnings and Heat Advisories will be in place for each afternoon from today through late next week.
A strong south-to-sheasterly wind, gusting in excess of 30 miles an hour, will keep Gulf humidity in place and cause elevated rip currents. That wind also will exacerbate inland fire danger with the extremely dry fuels (trees and brush).
A tropical wave will migrate westward across the Gulf of Mexico over the next several days and arrive in South Texas late Monday. Unfortunately, its impact will bring only partly cloudy skies and isolated showers in the coastal waters. The atmosphere over the Coastal Bend will remain unfavorable for rain, so drought conditions will persist. In fact, the area of moderate drought has now increased to cover much of the Coastal Bend.
Activity in the tropics remains quiet in the Atlantic and energetic in the Eastern Pacific, but none of it is expected to impact North America at this time. One disturbance with a high chance of becoming a tropical cyclone is well southwest of Mexico and moving west, away from land. Another disturbance with a low chance of development is hugging the western Central America coast and moving west-northwest, parallel to the coast.
