Saturday morning across Central and North Texas starts mild, with mostly cloudy skies and temperatures sitting in the upper 60s to low 70s. The air will feel muggy early, and light south winds will make it easy to forget that a sharp weather change is on the way.
That changes fast. The cold front is expected to reach the Hill Country by sunrise and push into Austin Texas by mid-morning. As it moves through, temperatures will begin dropping noticeably, falling into the mid-60s around noon. A few light showers may develop along the front as it arrives, though they are expected to be brief and scattered during the early part of the day.
Winds will shift out of the north as the front passes, sustaining between 10 and 20 mph with gusts up to 25 mph. By the afternoon, those gusts could reach 40 mph as the front pushes south through South-Central Texas. By around 4 p.m., temperatures will have dropped into the mid-50s, and anyone heading outside without a jacket will feel it immediately.
In the Dallas-Fort Worth area, the National Weather Service is forecasting a high of around 64 to 65 degrees before temperatures fall to the mid-to-upper 40s overnight. North winds are expected to sustain between 15 and 25 mph throughout the afternoon.
Rain and storm chances are not small
The temperature drop is the headline, but the rain threat deserves attention too. Austin and surrounding areas are looking at a 60% chance of showers and thunderstorms on Saturday. Light rain is possible in the morning and early afternoon, but the more organized storm activity is expected to develop west of the city around 3 p.m. before drifting toward the Interstate 35 corridor by early evening and continuing into the overnight hours.
Dallas-Fort Worth is also tracking that same 60% storm chance, with the strongest activity expected mainly before noon. Skies are forecast to gradually clear through the night, with a slight chance of showers lingering until around 7 p.m.
Sunday brings some relief
Showers may hang around into early Sunday morning in Texas before shifting south, and by afternoon Austin and Dallas should see drier conditions and some sunshine returning. Morning lows will be chilly, sitting in the upper 40s to lower 50s across Central Texas, with the Hill Country potentially dipping into the 40s. Afternoon highs should recover into the upper 60s to low 70s. North winds will remain noticeable at 8 to 15 mph with gusts near 25 mph.
Dallas-Fort Worth is looking at a Sunday high near 73 degrees with partly cloudy skies in the morning giving way to sunnier conditions by the afternoon.
More rain arrives early next week
After a mostly dry Sunday, another weather system moving north out of Mexico will bring a fresh round of showers and thunderstorms into the region. The disturbance is expected to spark activity west of Central Texas on Sunday night before shifting east on Monday, bringing another solid chance of rain and storms back through the area.
Rainfall totals from Saturday through Wednesday morning could approach an inch across Central Texas, with slightly higher amounts expected further south.
Temperatures will stay below April’s average high of 80 degrees through the middle of next week. After that, southeast winds are expected to return and push highs back into the lower to mid-80s heading into the following weekend.
