Austin's Four-Day Cloud Cover Breaks for Veterans Day Before Another Wet Weekend Rolls In

A dry cold front clears Central Texas skies Wednesday with highs near 80°F, but El Niño's strengthening grip means rain returns by Saturday — November's wetter-than-normal pattern is locking in.

Four consecutive days of overcast skies across Central Texas end Wednesday as a weak, dry cold front pushes through the region. The clearing brings Veterans Day sunshine and afternoon highs in the upper 70s to near 80 degrees — the warmest of the week. Northerly wind gusts of 15 to 20 mph will accompany the front, especially across the Hill Country.

Behind the front, Thursday and Friday bring a cooler but pleasant pattern. Morning lows will dip into the upper 40s in the Hill Country and lower-to-mid 50s in the Austin metro. Thursday's afternoon high lands near the mid-November average of 73 degrees, with low humidity and light northerly winds. Friday mirrors the pattern with a chilly morning giving way to a 70s afternoon. The dry stretch is short-lived. Another atmospheric disturbance tracking from Southern California across northern Mexico into Texas is expected to bring 30% to 60% rain chances peaking from late Saturday into early Sunday. The National Weather Service's regional office notes a cold front may follow sometime Monday or Monday night, depending on the evolution of a second upper-level system moving out of the Intermountain West. This weekend's rain is not a surprise. The monthly outlook flagged November as wetter than normal weeks ago, and an increasingly strong El Niño climate pattern is now reinforcing that signal. The pattern mirrors last weekend's rain event: starting over the Rio Grande Plains, then spreading eastward. Once rain moves through Saturday night, Sunday highs cool to the upper 60s. The broader question for Central Texas is how persistent this El Niño-driven wet pattern becomes through the rest of November and into winter. Texas typically enjoys more than 200 days of sunshine per year; the current stretch of cloudiness and recurring weekend rain is a departure from that norm, driven by large-scale climate dynamics rather than local quirks. For residents and planners, the pattern is clear: midweek windows of sunshine bookended by weekend rain chances, with temperatures oscillating around seasonal averages. Infrastructure stress from repeated wet weekends remains low for now, but the trajectory bears watching if El Niño strengthens further.