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Strong wind gusts today & increasing fire danger

Wind advisories and fire weather watches posted for the region
Sunrise at Oso Bay Wetlands Preserve and Learning Center - Photo By: FB Coastal Bend Weather Watcher Pat Nilles Clark
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CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — South Texas is going to be in store for a lot of wind today. The National Weather Service has issued a Wind Advisory for all coastal locations from 10AM until 6PM for wind gusts in the 40-50 MPH range from the late morning hours all the way through early evening.

If you have loose items outdoors, you may want to get those secured because the wind will be strong enough to carry them. Loose tree limbs may also break and potentially cause some power outages.

A cold front, and associated upper-level disturbance, will move through the Desert Southwest today and is helping to increase the southerly winds here in South Texas and that southerly wind will help drive our humidity higher along with afternoon temperatures. Today we’ll see highs mainly in the 70s & 80s. About 10-15 degrees above seasonal average.

The high winds and dry vegetation that is all across South Texas has been driving up wildfire activity and area fire officials have been tirelessly trying to save property and lives with these wildfires popping up. Even though humidity levels are high right now, it is still causing a problem.

As a cold front moves through region Thursday afternoon, humidity will be swept out of the region, and we’ll be left with windy conditions, dry vegetation and very dry air. This is a recipe for high fire danger. A Fire Weather Watch has been issued by the National Weather Service from 9AM until midnight beginning Thursday in anticipation of the critical fire levels that will be in place. This watch is for many of the inland counties and Red Flag Warnings are posted to our north towards San Antonio.

Residents are strongly encouraged not to burn or do any activity dealing with flames or sparks near dry vegetation over the next several days. Many counties are already enacting burn bans to help mitigate potential disasters.

Ahead of the front Thursday afternoon, temperatures will soar into the middle to upper 80s and little to no rainfall is in the forecast.

By Friday morning we’ll drop into the upper 30s with highs only maxing out in the upper 50s to lower 60s.

Cloud coverage will be plentiful today as well, we’ll see more sunshine tomorrow, but the clouds will return on Friday and don’t really clear out through the weekend or early next week as we keep a southwesterly flow coming in off the Pacific.

Temperatures will moderate back into the 70s on Sunday and going into next week and the wind will stay elevated around 15-25 MPH.

Today: Wind Advisories issued until 6PM, very warm and very windy with elevated fire danger, mainly cloudy…High: 77…wind: SSE 20-35 MPH with gusts around 40-50 MPH.

Tonight: Staying windy, partly cloudy and very humid…Low: 62…Wind: SSW 15-25 MPH.

Thursday: Mainly sunny, windy and an afternoon cold front; CRITICAL FIRE DANGER with Fire Weather Watches posted…High: 84…Wind: NNW 15-25 MPH & gusts approaching 40 MPH.

Friday: Cold morning, staying breezy and partly cloudy with cooler temperatures…High: 61…Wind: NNE 10-20 MPH.

Saturday: Mainly cloudy, breezy and cool…High: 64…Wind: ENE 10-20 MPH.

Sunday: Mainly cloudy, becoming milder and more wind…High: 73…Wind: SSE 15-25 MPH.

Monday: Warm, humid and windy under mainly cloudy skies…High: 79…Wind: SSE 15-25 MPH.

Have a great day!