I wanted to give an update about Thursday's changing weather. First off, a dry line is going to be working its way across the region during the afternoon. It will pass through Lubbock between 3:00-4:00 pm. Behind that, a cold front will push east, through Lubbock, between 5:00-6:00 pm. We will see strong wind this afternoon, through tomorrow at lunch time. Wind gusts will reach 40 mph at times today and tomorrow. Nearly all, if not all of us, will stay dry today. The dry line will set up east of Post, Floydada and Silverton. Ahead of that, in the yellow areas in the picture above, a storm, or two, may form from 5:00-7:00 pm. That storm could have hail up to baseball size. The threat in the yellow counties is low today. I am not expecting much to happen, but it is definitely worth a mention for those that live there.
There are two situations that are more likely to happen than severe weather. The first is the strong wind. You can see the computer forecast for Thursday evening around 5:30. Sustained wind is going to be at 25-30 mph. As mentioned, those gusts will get to 40 mph. The timing on this runs through noon on Friday, May 8. After that, wind will drop down to 10-15 mph Friday afternoon. Dry air is going to dominate the forecast through Monday morning. Keep that in mind if you're going to be around open flames. Fires will spread very fast with the dry air and strong wind we are seeing.
As that cold front moves through Thursday afternoon/evening, we will definitely feel the cooler air push in by tomorrow. The above picture is the forecast temperatures starting at noon Friday, as the wind finally begins to weaken. High temperatures will drop by nearly 30 degrees from Thursday to Friday. We're talking about highs being in the mid and upper 60s on May 8. That is really fantastic! Saturday is actually going to be a beautiful day to get outside. We'll see sunny skies, with light wind and highs in the mid 70s. It will be great to get outside, just socially distance yourself from others. We have to take that seriously, no matter how much of a pain in the rear it is. Hopefully we can squeeze out some rain on Monday afternoon. As of now, it looks to only be 10%. But we will definitely take all we can get!