texas

Explaining Why It'll Be So Windy Thursday

A strong ridge of high pressure has been in place over North Texas. The ridge has pushed the jet stream to the north, providing near record heat.

Today, highs will be in the mid 80s; the record high for today is 86.

Big weather changes are coming.

The coldest air of the season will begin to invade North Texas Friday with the passage of a cold front. Temperatures will be in the 50s on Saturday. Sunday morning, North Texans will see our first 30 degree readings of the season.

Before the colder air arrives this weekend, the winds will pick up on Thursday. South winds will be gusty with speeds around 30 mph.

Why? The rapidly changing pressure.

A strong 1023 millibar surface high will be east of Texas, while a 991 mbar surface low will be to our west. Air moves from high to low pressure, allowing for a southerly wind.

As the low pressure replaces the high pressure, the pressure gradient will tighten. A tight pressure gradient increases the wind speed.

You can see this on a weather map when isobars (lines of equal pressure) are really close to each other.

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