Brace for the breeze.

Sunday’s gusty winds are forecast to persist across the Rio Grande Valley for the next several days, sending palm fronds skittering across roadways, stretching out high-flying flags, and prompting small-craft advisories for coastal waters.

A wind advisory was issued for the Valley on Sunday and could be revived as the week progresses. Winds will be gusting to near 30 mph for the next several days, a result of a monster frontal system that swept out of the Pacific and is currently working its way east.

“It’s a low-pressure system that is developing over the Central Plains states, and it’s going to keep our breezy to windy conditions for today and on into Monday,” Tim Speece, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Brownsville, said Sunday.

“I believe it’s also looking like pretty breezy conditions on Tuesday, too, and that’s pretty much what’s driving this whole event,” he added.

The high, gusty winds associated with this frontal system moving across the continent to our north will probably continue through Thursday, forecasters say.

Out West, the forecast is much more dire.

Beginning late tonight and extending into Tuesday, forecasters have issued warnings of winds gusting from 40 to 60 mph and high as 90 mph in higher elevations in drought-stricken southern California, Nevada and Arizona, AccuWeather says.

“These winds will bring the threat of difficult travel, blowing dust and the potential to rapidly spread area wildfires,” said Alyssa Smithmyer, an AccuWeather meteorologist.

Some areas in the Rockies could receive up to 30 inches of snow from the system, forecasters say.

Speece in Brownsville says as the frontal system moves east, the potential for severe weather for northern Texas, Oklahoma and western Missouri was in place overnight Sunday. After it passes, the severe weather potential will shift today to Illinois, Michigan and Indiana, according to the National Storm Prediction Center.

Here in the Valley, we’re at the southern range of the frontal system’s power, and Speece said windy conditions are all we should experience over the next few days — hot, breezy and dry.

“These types of storm systems, their impact is far and wide,” Speece said. “You’re looking at potential winter weather in the Rockies, and then also severe weather in the Midwest. Down here, we’re sort of on the southern edge of the system, which usually means, for us, quite a bit of wind.”

Small-craft advisories were issued for the Laguna Madre and offshore in the gulf out to 25 nautical miles, Speece said. Those might be extended Monday and Tuesday depending on the strength of the south-southeasterly winds.

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