via: chron.com
After Super Bowl Sunday saw highs reach the 70s, Houston’s seesawing winter weather is expected to dip back to freezing later this week.
A strong cold front will push through Houston, dropping temperatures in its wake. Currently, forecasters with the Houston/Galveston office of the National Weather Service expect the front to move through downtown Houston during the late afternoon hours.
Rain is currently forecast for Thursday, but conditions at that point will likely not be cold enough for freezing rain, sleet or snow, said Robert Vanhoven, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service.
“Right now it doesn’t look like it’s going to be as bad as last week, but we’re still looking at it,” Vanhoven said.
Temperatures could be in the 30s Thursday morning, according to the National Weather Service.
The conditions may present another challenge for local and state officials who were on full alert last week for icy roads and highways.
Officials watching roads
The Texas Department of Transportation, hoping to curb ice formation last week, applied at least 39,000 gallons of magnesium chloride to roads and highways in its Houston district. But much of the magnesium chloride was thought to be washed away by sleet and freezing rain, which came instead of anticipated snow. Officials are paying attention to weather, but are not currently concerned about ice on roads.
“We’ll monitor the situation and assess it as we get closer to that date and see what we need,” said Danny Perez, a spokesman for TxDOT.
Resources can quickly be called back into action if rain leads to dangerous driving conditions, said Francisco Sanchez, a spokesman for the Harris County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
“We can get a heads up pretty quickly and react pretty fast,” Sanchez said.
The up-and-down weather had Houston residents going from scarves and overcoats Thursday to short-sleeves Sunday. It also brought a familiar back-and-forth routine to the Houston Zoo, where animals retreat into heated enclosures in their exhibits on cold days.
Attendance spikes
Vulnerable species, including many birds, are specially protected with tarps to block wind and keep them warm, said Brian Hill, a spokesman for the zoo. Other birds, like red-crowned cranes, which are native to Siberia, don’t have a problem with the cold, he said.
“They love this kind of weather,” he said. “It’s what they were bred for.”
Attendance at the zoo soared during the weekend, from scarcely anyone on Thursday to more than 5,000 visitors on Sunday, Hill said.
