HOUSTON – Houston, have you been enjoying the rain these past few days?

I know I certainly have and the lakes, rivers and bayous in the area love them too.

The wet pattern looks to continue through at least the first part of the week, and we could also be dealing with a few stronger storms early Tuesday morning.

Election Day could be a wet one for many of us.

Monday

First, let’s move on to Monday. I expect Monday to look pretty similar to how the weekend was. Horrible, maybe a few sunny spells with isolated to scattered showers and thunderstorms moving through the area.

Rain chances will increase as we get later into Monday, with the chance peaking overnight and into the early hours of Tuesday morning as a cold front approaches the area.

Severe weather threat

Before we go any further, I want to mention the potential for a few storms to be stronger, maybe even severe, Tuesday night. The chart above is the severe weather forecast from the Storm Prediction Center. It is in effect from 6:00 AM on Monday until 6:00 AM on Tuesday. You can see that the Houston area is outlined in a level 1 marginal risk of severe weather. This means one or two storms could become strong. A higher risk for severe storms exists in Central Texas and North Texas, where a level 2 slight risk and a level 3 enhanced risk have been outlined in yellow and orange.

I want to point out that the different shades of color only highlight where the more severe storms are expected to be, not necessarily how strong the storms will be. So you could have storms as strong in green as in yellow and orange, but the amount of storms is expected to be less.

That said, we expect the worst of the severe threat to remain further north. However, we could see some strong gusty winds with storms arriving with the cold front early Tuesday, maybe some pocket hail, and while the risk is extremely low, I would never rule out the chance of a brief tornado, especially in the north . of the immediate metro Houston.

Tuesday

Around 1am, there will be scattered thunderstorms in the area as the cold front begins to push toward Houston. We’ll have to watch any of these storms for the potential to be on the stronger side.

As we approach 5am-6am, a line of storms will approach Harris County from the west. These storms could have gusty winds, lots of lightning, and very heavy rain, so if you’re going to be heading to work during this time frame, allow yourself extra time and be aware of changing conditions.

By 9am, storms will still be in the area, although they appear to be slightly less severe than earlier in the morning. It looks wet for many in the area though, so take it slow and be careful on those wet roads.

By noon, it still looks like we’ll have showers and thunderstorms as the cold front tries to take its sweet time pushing out of here.

Overview

So to recap what we expect on Monday and Tuesday:

• Monday looks like this weekend, dreary with a few peaks of sunshine. There will be scattered showers and thunderstorms, increasing in coverage as we head into the overnight hours before a cold front arrives.

• There is a severe weather threat beginning Monday afternoon, but I expect the best chance to see severe storms will be early Tuesday as a line of storms approaches the area from the west. Strong winds, lightning and heavy rain will be the main threats, with an outside chance of hail and perhaps a brief tornado.

• Tuesday looks wet for most of the day, though storms should weaken as we go through the day as a cold front tries to move through.

We’ll have more data as we get closer to Tuesday so we can identify a little better what to expect.