CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — High pressure that brought cool mornings, dyr air and mild afternoons has moved into the Deep South, leaving the Coastal Bend with above normal temperatures that will persist into next week, when rain chances return. The upper-level ridge to our west is maintaining a dry and stable environment for the next several days, so even as daytime temperatures surge into the 90s Thursday throujgh Saturday moisture will remain at a premium. Breezy conditions tonight will give way to lighter southerly flow the next few days.
Rain chances make a return early next week with a combination of Eastern Pacific tropical moisture and a mid-latitude disturbance. The tropical influence will come from what is now Tropical Storm (soon to be Hurricane) Norma in the Eastern Pacific. This system will spread mid- and upper-level moisture as it lifts through West Texas early next week, with only isolated showers expected here in the Coastal Bend. A better chance for meaningful rainfall will come with a vigorous upper-air disturbance moving out of the Rockies and into the Southern Plains late Tuesday into Wednesday. Even so, most of its energy will be focused to our north, and we will see only a quarter to a half inch of rainfall.
In the Tropical Atlantic, Tropical Wave 94L soon will become a tropical depression as it begins to approach the Lesser Antilles. This system will not affect the Western Gulf of Mexico.