Originally published at: Sunny and mild weather continues, clear skies will afford good views of the Orionid meteor shower – Space City Weather
In brief: Houston’s pleasant, fall-like conditions will continue at least through the weekend, with mostly sunny skies and moderate humidity levels. Our clear skies will hold a boon early on Thursday, with good viewing conditions for the Orionid meteor shower.
Meteor shower viewing
The Orionid meteor shower is peaking over the next day or two, but seeing this increase in meteors is complicated by a couple of factors. Locally, the best time to see it will be on Thursday morning, from about 4 am CT and until the onset of nautical twilight. This is because the waxing gibbous Moon sets at 3:53 am, leaving nearly three hours of dark skies before they start to lighten due to the approaching sunrise. The cloud cover forecast for that time period is nearly perfect, with clear skies anticipated.
The Orionids can be one of the better meteor showers a year, with the potential for 20 or more meteors visible per hour, provided you have reasonably dark skies—which of course can be difficult in the urban core of Houston. The source of these meteors is debris from Halley’s Comet, which it leaves behind when shedding ice and dust during its periodic traverses through the inner Solar System. They get their name from the Orion constellation, from which they appear to originate.
Wednesday
Back on Earth there’s nothing too exciting happening with Houston’s weather as high pressure continues to dominate. Conditions are a little muggier this morning, but our flow becomes more northeasterly later today and that should help to push our humidity a bit lower. Expect highs today in the low- to mid-80s with sunny skies and light northeasterly winds. Low temperatures tonight will bottom out at about 60 degrees in Houston, with cooler conditions for outlying areas.
Thursday and Friday
These look to be pleasant days with highs in the low- to mid-80s, sunny skies, and lower humidity. Nights should get down to around 60 degrees, again with the upper 50s possible for inland areas.
Saturday and Sunday
Not much changes this weekend, with highs in the vicinity of 80 degrees, and lows in the lower 60s. Some clouds are possible later on Sunday. Rain chances remain near zero.
Next week
This overall pattern should remain in place next week, with highs in the low 80s and overnight lows in the 60s. We could see some slight rain chances return on Tuesday, briefly. There are potentially better rain chances from next Thursday into the weekend, but the details of that forecast are far enough into the future to be rather blurry.
