Forget the shorts and the T-shirts, and bring out the long pants, sweaters and jackets, as a series of cold fronts will begin making their way through the Rio Grande Valley Saturday into next week.
Saturday’s highs will be in the lower 50s, but with the winds and drizzle, the “feels like” temperatures will be around 45 degrees, said Barry Goldsmith, warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Brownsville/South Padre Island.
This is a big difference from the weather the Valley experienced Friday, when daytime highs were about 78 degrees.
“It’s about a 30-degree change…Get ready to go from comfortable spring-like clothes to jackets and sweaters,” Goldsmith said, adding it will be a good day for hot coffee and cocoa.
Although there will be light rain, the cold temperatures are what the public should be mindful of.
Goldsmith said there will be strong winds and rough seas in the gulf waters and it won’t be a good day for boaters or people planning to go fishing this weekend.
It will be chilly on Sunday, and the temperatures will warm up to the 60s along the coast, but they will remain in the low 60s along the I-69E corridor and in the upper 50s in the McAllen area.
The temperatures Sunday morning will be in the 40s and 50s but will warm up during the day.
“Compared to last weekend when it was pretty warm, breezy and humid, and the whole nine yards, this is back to more what you would expect on these cold snaps in December here in the Valley,” Goldsmith said.
Another cold front will push through the Valley on Monday, with highs in the 60s in the lower Valley and in the upper 50s in the upper Valley. Those temperatures are expected to remain in place Tuesday and Wednesday.
“Nighttime temperatures or morning temperatures Tuesday (will be in the) upper 40s to lower 50s, and Tuesday afternoon we are looking at the 60s,” Goldsmith said.
Forecasting what will happen Thursday through Saturday is somewhat tricky, but the bottom line is that it will be cold, Goldsmith said.
“The overall forecast is cooler,” he said, predicting Thursday’s temperatures in the 50s. “On Friday we are looking at upper 40s to the mid-50s right now.”
“On Friday morning we could be talking temperatures in the freezing range…the potential exists that we could have a freeze on Friday morning,” he said. “The problem with that is we are going to accompany those temperatures with pretty strong northerly winds, so the feels like temperatures could be as low as the low 20s to mid-20s.”
Goldsmith added that the forecast could change with even lower temperatures as a possibility.
“This is the pre-Christmas period, meaning Thursday night into Saturday morning, so people need to be thinking about coats, multiple layers and getting their space heaters ready,” he said.
Communities should also be thinking about opening up warming centers for those individuals who have no warm place to go.
People in the agricultural community are going to want to keep an eye on the forecast because if the weather gets any colder – during that time and drier – it could be a real situation for citrus, Goldsmith said.
“We are not explicitly forecasting that yet, but is something to keep in the back of the mind, and by Monday we will know a lot more on what we are going to see on Friday and Saturday morning than we do right now,” he said.
