Your chance of rain goes up even more Wednesday

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — You may not win the lottery, but your chance of rain is going up to 40% for Wednesday.

Tropical moisture is blowing in from the Gulf, and with a weak disturbance passing overhead to provide lift, widely scattered thunderstorms should pop up in the early afternoon. Any shower that develops could drop a quick inch of rain, produce frequent lightning, and pack wind gusts over 40 miles per hour.

Temperatures will be held down by the development of showers and thunderstorms, keeping highs near average in the mid-90s for most Houstonians.

What do rain chances look like for the rest of the week?

With the heat ridge now to our east, pockets of moisture and weak disturbances from the Gulf will keep flowing our way. This should bring a more typical summer-time pattern with highs in the mid-90s and that small chance for a daily afternoon thundershower. The disturbance arriving Wednesday will still bring a 30% chance of rain Thursday. Then the rain chance will drop to 20% for Friday and Saturday.

What can we expect for the weekend?

It will be hot both days this weekend, but highs in Houston should stay just shy of 100. Another weak disturbance will blow in from the Gulf late Sunday pushing rain chances back up to 30%-40% territory Sunday night and Monday.

Is there anything worth watching in the tropics?

Another large Saharan dust cloud is moving across the Atlantic Ocean, but there are also large tropical waves emerging south of it. These waves often clear out the dust so that following tropical wave have room to develop. In other words, the tropics may start to get active in August as is typical in hurricane season. For the very latest check out our daily tropical update.