Wildfire smoke blows through Houston's sky today, Saharan haze arrives next week

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- We've now added haze to our hot and humid weather pattern, and that haze is coming on thick today as wildfire smoke all the way from Utah makes it into the sky high over Southeast Texas. While the air may clear up a bit over the weekend, another round of haze will arrive Monday, this time all the way from the Sahara Desert.

Don't expect to see a whole lot of blue sky today with that thicker plume of elevated wildfire smoke blowing in from the north. Because the smoke is primarily over 10,000 feet above the ground, there shouldn't be too much of an impact on our air quality. Temperatures will peak in the low-to-mid 90s with the heat index peaking around 105 degrees, just shy of Heat Advisory criteria. Rain chances will remain near zero percent.

How is the weekend shaping up?

We'll get a slightly stronger southerly breeze over the weekend, keeping lows near 80 and highs in the mid 90s. Enough moisture is back on Sunday to generate a 20% chance of isolated showers. While the sky may look more blue on Saturday, a Saharan haze will begin blowing in late Sunday.

What are you tracking in the tropics?

There is a large plume of thick Saharan dust entering the Caribbean that should eventually reach us here in Southeast Texas early next week. Visit our Tropical Update page for a more in-depth tropical weather discussion and forecast.

13 ALERT RADAR MAPS:
Southeast Texas
Houston
Harris County
Galveston County
Montgomery/Walker/San Jacinto/Polk/Grimes Counties
Fort Bend/Wharton/Colorado Counties
Brazoria/Matagorda Counties

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