Sign up for TPR Today, Texas Public Radio's newsletter that brings our top stories to your inbox each morning.
Weather forecasters said it's possible the remnants of Hurricane Polo and a Pacific cold front will combine next week to push rain into the Hill Country and South Texas, including the San Antonio area.
The dying swirls of Polo will push east across Mexico, while the cold front moves in from the north to intersect it.
The National Hurricane Center released a map with a cone of possibilities for the path of Polo across Mexico and into Far West Texas, but its path could vary in the days ahead.
The National Weather Service said the timing of the cold front's arrival next week varies, according to different computer models, but it may start triggering scattered showers in the San Antonio area as early as Tuesday afternoon. The showers were expected to grow more widespread for the rest of the week, covering as much as half the region.
Rainfall totals this far out were also hard to predict, but some computer models suggested the I-35 corridor and parts of the Hill Country could receive around two inches of precipitation in total next week.
While it's called a cold front, it will not have a big impact on temperatures for most of the week with highs in the mid 90s and lows in the mid 70s. Another cold front, however, may create the mildest weekend of fall so far. Highs next Saturday and Sunday may remain in the upper 80s, and early morning lows may hover in the upper 60s.
The cold front will likely usher in a milder October overall, as the arrival of cold fronts in Texas begins to pick up during the month of Halloween. Highs in the 80s and lows in the 60s are historically more common during the month.
Bexar County could also use some rain as it backslides back into drought conditions. The U.S. Drought Monitor on Friday reported only Northwest Bexar was not in drought conditions, but it was still listed as abnormally dry. The rest of the county is considered in moderate drought conditions. Bexar County Commissioners this month enacted a ban on outdoor burning that could remain in effect until mid-December.
San Antonio's rain surplus for the year, largely created by a rainy July, has started to disappear. The weather service reported Friday that the airport has received just under 27 inches of rain this year, which is only about three inches above the year-to-date average.
