What’s Austin weather like under ‘ring of fire’ pattern in Texas?
A subtropical ridge of high atmospheric pressure is centered over New Mexico and West Texas, but it is expansive enough to maintain its influence as a heat dome over Central Texas, bringing plenty of sunshine and typical August heat with afternoon temperatures near 100 degrees.
If you’re planning a final weekend getaway to the Texas Gulf Coast before school starts, be prepared for rain and thunderstorms. An atmospheric disturbance moving in from the east will bring a slight chance of isolated showers and storms each afternoon, particularly east of the Interstate 35 corridor, including areas near La Grange, Giddings, Smithville and Houston.
This summer weather pattern is known as the “ring of fire” because thunderstorms and rainfall typically develop along the edges of the high pressure system. Areas at the center of the ring experience sinking air, which heats up as it compresses near the surface, resulting in higher temperatures and clear skies. Meanwhile, weak atmospheric disturbances move clockwise around the high pressure, bringing rain chances to those along its periphery and that includes Southeast Texas this weekend.
Morning lows will be warm and near the seasonal normal of 76 degrees and afternoon temperatures will range from 97 to 99 degrees with heat index readings from 101 to 103.
The heat dome will shift west and weaken on Sunday. At the same time, the disturbance along the coast will move inland, and an upper-level trough of low pressure will move into North Texas from the Great Plains. All these events will allow for increased rain and storm chances early next week. Some uncertainty remains on the timing of these events but a solid 20-30% rain chance is likely.
The Perseid meteor showers, one of the most popular, is underway and will intensify this weekend as the Earth passes through the dusty debris of Comet Swift-Tuttle. Cameras counted 16 Perseid fireballs over the United States last week and that number will increase this weekend, according to NASA. The event peaks on the nights of Aug. 11-13. At that time, up to 50 to 100 meteors an hour could be visible.
However, visibility this year will be affected by the full moon, which occurred Saturday morning and will still appear 86% full on the peak night.
The best viewing time is between midnight and dawn. To enjoy the show, find a safe spot away from city lights, lie back and look up.