CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Temperatures are cooling down across South Texas, courtesy of a cold front that is continuing to move through the region. As it does so, scattered to numerous showers and thunderstorms have made their way through the region giving us some badly needed rain.
Accumulation is less than an inch so far at Corpus Christi International Airport. However, there are some spots on the south side of town that were reported by the National Weather Service that have picked up more than 3 inches of rain. Similar readings are being picked up by our 6WEATHER Radar with rainfall estimates just west of Portland reading around 3 inches, too. Inland parts of the Coastal Bend have mainly been around a few hundredths to a few tenths.
The showers and storms will continue through the late morning hours to around midday before the upper-level disturbance associated with all this rainfall activity kicks north and east of South Texas. That will help us dry out and the clouds will break up too with some afternoon sunshine in store later this afternoon.
We'll top out with high temperatures this afternoon in the upper 50s to lower 60s. It will be about 20 degrees below the afternoon high of 80 we achieved yesterday. Winds will still be gusty most of the day from the west-northwest around 20-30 mph.
The Mayor's New Year's Eve Big Bang celebration fireworks display in along the shoreline in downtown Corpus Christi is set to begin at 7 p.m. - weather permitting. We should see clouds beginning to move out. Temperatures at 7 p.m. will be near the low 50s to upper 40s. Winds will still be on the breezy side around 24 mph which will make it feel colder in the lower 40s to upper 30s. Bundle up and stay warm!
Tonight, we'll continue to clear the clouds out as colder air filters in and we'll fall into the upper 30s. Winds will be out of the WNW at 8-16 mph.
On New Year's Day, we'll finally see less winds and mainly sunny skies with a high of 62.
And on Saturday we'll get a reinforcing shot of some cooler air and that will allow cold mornings through Sunday and cool afternoons in the 60s.
Milder temperatures return early next week, and the next rainfall comes by Wednesday with the arrival of our next front.
Happy New Year to everyone and have a great day!