Weather

Hot & Dry Weekend Expected For North Texas

FORT WORTH (CBS 11 News) ― It's going to be a hot and dry weekend!

As of 3 p.m. Friday, the temperature is at 99 degrees at DFW, with a really good shot of hitting 100 or higher. The 4 p.m. observation could easily put us at 100 degrees. This would be the ninth 100 degree day this year and the fourth for the month of July.

We usually average six days in July with a high temperature of 100 degrees or hotter. In an average year, we see 16 days with high temperatures at 100 degrees or higher. We could string together several 100 degree days as we head into the weekend and early next week.

Any moisture that had the possibility of moving north from the Gulf of Mexico now appears as though it will stay in South Texas, keeping us high and dry.

I am forecasting a high on Saturday of 98 degrees as temperatures about 1500 meters up in the sky don't look quite as warm then as on Friday. On Sunday, I am forecasting a high of 100 degrees, and also for Monday and Tuesday, we will be right around 100 degrees.

An area of disturbed weather just off the coast of Georgia is trying to develop into a Tropical Depression or Storm. This will be slowly moving north toward North Carolina this weekend. Waters off the east coast are very warm and the upper level winds are favorable for this to develop into a tropical system. It is entirely possible that this could ramp up to a Category 1 hurricane if it stays over open waters for a few more days.

In the Caribbean, there is also an area of disturbed weather south of Hispaniola. This could be named a Tropical Depression or Storm later on Friday. The National Hurricane Center is the office that officially classifies disturbances in the Atlantic. It is up to their discretion when to name a system, so to say it will become one on Friday night is tough to say. Sometimes, what looks like a duck and quacks like a duck may actually turn out to be a goose in the eyes of the hurricane center.

The hurricane hunters are flying in this system on Friday and gathering data, so we will have more information as we go through the afternoon.

Why is this important to keep an eye on? The long-range models have this (wave or tropical disturbance) moving into the Gulf of Mexico by the middle of next week. Once it gets into the Gulf, it could impact Texas. So, it is something that bears watching.

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