CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A weak pressure gradient and upper air high pressure will mean light winds and above normal temperatures over the coming week, with isolated showers and thunderstorms over parts of the Coastal Bend Friday and Saturday and again during the middle of next week.
Light wind, clear skies and abundant surface moisture brought inland fog that dropped visibility to a quarter mile early today, and similar conditions are expected again Friday morning. The fog will disperse by mid-morning, and above normal temperatures return for the afternoon hours. Expect stray showers over the southern and southwest parts of the Coastal Bend Friday and Saturday as a tropical low moves through the Bay of Campeche into northeastern Mexico.
After generally fair conditions Sunday and Monday, the upper level ridge now to our north shifts into the Desert Southwest, allowing a disturbance in the Central Plains to drop south. That disturbance will push a cold front into Texas by Tuesday, bringing isolated showers and thunderstorms here Tuesday through Thursday.
Still, the main focus will be on excessive heat and humidity. Expect afternoon temperatures from the upper 90s to lower 100s, with heat indices of between 108 and 115 degrees. Overnights will be near normal, temperature-wise, in the middle to upper 70s.
Tropical activity remains robust both in the Atlantic and Eastern Pacific Basins. Tropical Storm Franklin will intensify to become a Category 2 hurricane as it moves northward, between Bermuda and the U.S. Another system in the northwest Caribbean will have a moderate chance of tropical development as it moves into the southeastern Gulf of Mexico this weekend. Two other disturbances will remain well out in the open waters of the Atlantic. In the Eastern Pacific, a disturbance hugging the southwest Mexican coastline has a high chance of becoming a tropical depression or tropical storm by this weekend. It will move northwest, parallel to the Mexican coast, and bears watching for potential impact along the Mexican coast including Baja California.
