Sunny skies made for a pretty-picture day across Texas. However, a picture doesn’t capture the gusty north winds and much cooler temperatures. It certainly was a decent winter’s day across the state. We didn’t set any new record low temperatures last night. After this past February, I think that’s something we can still be thankful for. Temperatures will fall off quickly tonight, thanks to clear skies. A freeze is expected for nearly every location in Texas by morning.

Temperatures tonight will drop into the teens and twenties across most locations in Texas. Those sub-freezing temperatures include some of our more-southern metropolitan areas such as Austin, San Antonio, Houston, Beaumont/Port Arthur, and perhaps Corpus Christi.

Those who didn’t experience a freeze last night should take steps to protect plants and ensure your outdoor faucets are covered up.

We’ll see temperatures fall into the upper 20s and lower 30s across Deep South Texas. The immediate Gulf Coast and Rio Grande Valley may stay just above freezing tonight, but it’ll still be chilly.

A quick warm-up begins tomorrow.

We’re going to be taking a ride on the temperature roller-coaster across Texas this week. After starting in the teens and twenties tomorrow, we’ll see high temperatures mainly in the 60s and 70s on Tuesday. Tomorrow’s high temperatures will be coolest across East Texas, with the 40s, and warmer across the western half of Texas with upper 50s to lower 60s. An even more significant warm-up arrives Tuesday as we jump back above-average in the temperature department. We’ll stay warm into Wednesday before another arctic cold front brings another brief cold weather episode on Thursday and Friday.

High Wildfire Danger returns on Tuesday.

After several days of low wildfire danger, we’re looking ahead to Tuesday for a return of high to critical fire-weather concerns. Above-average temperatures, humidity values below twenty percent, and gusty winds up to thirty-five miles per hour are expected across the Texas Panhandle, West Texas, Northwest Texas, and the Permian Basin. Even though we had a wee bit of precipitation on Friday and Saturday, winter-cured fuels and the ongoing drought means nothing has changed.

No precipitation is expected in Texas for the next five days.