Bob Peters Forecast

Seasonably warm temperatures and only a few isolated showers are expected in the region Independence Day, with Saturday and Sunday likely to be similar. Those were the conditions in the area Thursday.

Showers were confined to the East Texas Lakes country, and formed along the sea-breeze front. At 6 p.m., rain showers near Woodville and Kirbyville lowered the temperature to 77 and 83 at those stations, respectively.

Meanwhile, a weak cold front extended Thursday afternoon along a Springfield, Mo.- Childress line. This front should become stationary over Southern Oklahoma Friday, with the boundary lingering into Saturday.

At the same time, upper air disturbances will drop down the eastern flank of upper air high pressure over the Plains. This could set off widely scattered showers and thunderstorms in the region. These would be most likely during the afternoon hours of Friday, and are possible throughout the day on Saturday.

The likelihood of showers increases from south to north. The sea-breeze front could make it as far inland as a Lufkin-Shreveport line each afternoon, with shower chances along and south of it.

Early next week, a tropical wave is forecast to move through the Gulf of Mexico from east to west. This could re-invigorate the sea-breeze, returning shower chances to the region during the middle of next week.

With upper air high pressure back in place over the region, temperatures should run near seasonal values through the end of next week. The widespread rains of the last half of June have moistened soils and kept vegetation green.

This will act as a damper on temperatures, preventing them from reaching excessive levels until late-July at the soonest. Unfortunately, it will not have the same effect on relative humidities.

Once Tropical Maritime air is re-established which began Thursday relative humidities will be uncomfortably high. Temperatures Thursday were a few degrees warmer than on Wednesday, and were near seasonal normals.

Low readings Thursday morning were from the high 60s in the east to the lower 70s in the west. 70-degree readings are forecast each morning from Friday through Sunday. Afternoon high temperatures were from near 90 to the middle 90s. 90-degree high readings are likely Friday through Sunday.

Skies were fair overnight and Thursday morning, with some mid-level clouds developing during the period of maximum daytime heating in the afternoon. Thursday’s winds were southerly at 5-15 mph, with similar winds likely Friday and Saturday, and slightly stronger winds on Sunday.

Thursday’s highest sustaining wind in Tyler was southerly at 13 mph with a peak gust of 16 mph and an average velocity of 7.1 mph. Wednesday’s average wind velocity was 7.3 mph. Thursday’s average relative humidity was 67 percent, with slightly higher values likely Friday and Saturday. Wednesday’s average was 59 percent.

Tyler’s high temperature of 93 came at 4:11 p.m., following the morning low of 71 at 6:27 a.m.