CORPUS CHRISTI - TEXAS — Sending warm Christmas greetings to everyone on this cold Christmas Day morning!
Cool high pressure has settled over the Coastal Bend and we have a lot of dry air filtering into the region. Despite some morning clouds that are rolling in from the west, many of us are starting off with temperatures in the 30s. The exception is our coastal residents where temperatures having been holding steady in the 40s and even some low 50s.
The National Weather Service continues to hold on to a Freeze Warning in effect for our inland counties including LaSalle, Duval, Jim Wells, Jim Hogg, Brooks, inland Kleberg and Kenedy until 8AM.
We are in store for a beautiful and seasonal Christmas Day here in South Texas where afternoon high temperatures will reach the upper 60s to low 70s for many locations. Winds will be light and turn more southwesterly today, but only go around 5-10 MPH.
Tonight, despite the winds turning more off the Gulf and ushering in higher humidity values, it will still be cool with many locations once again dropping into the upper 30s to low 40s. We'll forecast 42 here in Corpus Christi with light winds.
Over the weekend, humidity levels will continue to go up and we'll see a few more clouds in the area and temperatures will go higher and above normal.
As we wait for our next cold front to arrive, which won't be until the middle of next week, the winds will start to get a bit gusty. Sunday and Monday those winds will be sustained out of the southeast around 15-25 MPH each afternoon and get even strong on Tuesday ahead of the front with sustained values around 20-30 MPH.
Late Tuesday and early Wednesday morning the cold front arrive and bring with it some isolated showers. This is our best opportunity for some rainfall. Again, won't be a lot of rainfall, especially given the strong winds, but it will bring us another round of some cooler weather for the end of the next week and as we head into New Year's.
Have a great day and Merry Christmas!