Fall is set to officially arrive in San Antonio on Wednesday at 2:21 p.m., according to National Weather Service forecaster Matt Brady in New Braunfels, but a cold front will give us a bit of a sneak peek on Tuesday.
Brady said the front should push into the Alamo City by early Tuesday afternoon, blasting high humidity out of the area.
Highs will remain in the 80s, but the arrival of the dry air associated with the cold front will drop humidity levels on Tuesday afternoon. It should dip between 17 and 25%. San Antonians woke up to humidity levels in the lower 90s on Monday.
It will also trigger a few showers before it pushes through; however, rainfall accumulations are expected only to be around a quarter of an inch with some isolated areas receiving an inch. Wind gusts up to 25 mph are likely.
Brady said wake up temperatures in San Antonio will be in the 60s on Wednesday, but even cooler temperatures are expected on Thursday in the city.
"We're going to have morning lows dropping into the 50s and maybe even some upper 40s could be possible in the Hill Country on Thursday morning," he said.
Brady added residents should make plans to get out and enjoy the mild weather, but warned against any sort of outdoor burning because of wind gusts and lower humidity levels.
He also said temperatures in the 90s will back by Saturday and Sunday, another reason to try to get out and about before then.
Bexar and surrounding counties emerged from official drought conditions after a rainy June and July. Those conditions have not yet returned, but the lack of rainfall since then has caused the Edwards Aquifer water level to drop and prompted the City of San Antonio to enter Stage 1 Water restrictions this summer.
Residents can only use automatic irrigation systems or sprinklers once a week based on street address, but hand watering with a hose is still allowed anytime.
The overall dry ending to the summer of 2021 appears likely to continue into the fall.
"Right now, slightly above average temperature wise and slightly below normal precipitation wise as well," Brady said of the long term forecast
for fall.
The cold front comes right after summer officially delivered one more hot punch to the city.
Temperatures on Monday were expected to be at or above the record high for the date of 100 degrees, set back in 1947. The heat index was forecasted as high as 107 for some of the area on Monday.
