Good morning and happy Sunday!  Pretty much a cut and paste of yesterday’s forecast with additional rain chances across western Texas and the panhandle today and possibly lasting into the overnight hours.  The high pressure ridge over the Permian Basin/Trans Pecos area will continue to stay put for a few more days…maybe shifting just a bit further west before expanding back east again during the middle of the work week.  This will leave much of western Texas under northwest flow aloft which will help to bring continued rain chances to the region for the next couple of days.

Highs today…creeping up a few degrees from yesterday. Residual cloud cover over the panhandle will result in temps maxing out in the upper 80s to low 90s.  Hottest region, once again, will be south Texas where highs in the 100 to 102 range is expected once again.  The good news is lower dewpoints this afternoon…less moisture in the atmosphere…will keep the heat index values in check and right around the actual air temperature.  Overnight lows will be mainly in the 70s…although some of the urban areas will likely be right at 79 to 80 which doesn’t equate to much cooling overnight.

Looking ahead at the trends for this month, check out these nice graphics from the NWS office in Houston/Galveston.  Above average rainfall looks to continue for parts of the panhandle.  Near average rainfall is expected across the remainder of north and down into northern central Texas.  Southern and southwest Texas will likely experience below average rainfall for the month.  The graphic has the average August precip amounts listed for southeast Texas…so here’s some August precip averages from a few other parts of the state… Dallas 1.85, Waco 2.13, Paris 2.2, Vernon 2.44, Midland 2.13, Pecos 1.61, Amarillo 2.91 and Lubbock 1.93.  Looking ahead to September and October…we could see the return of cooler and wetter patterns if the current Climate Prediction Center forecasts stay consistent.