After 20 days of heavy rainfall, river flooding, destructive winds and a pair of tornadoes to boot, Houston weather these days has settled into a relatively stable pattern. But we likely will punctuate this week with the city’s highest temperatures of the year to date.

Wednesday temperatures will be trapped in a roughly 10-degree window, with morning lows starting at a balmy 78 degrees and afternoon highs reaching 88 by 2 p.m., according to the National Weather Service. Humidity, though, has a firm grip on Southeast Texas, so the muggy air will make even those upper 80s feel more like a sticky 96 or 97 degrees.

With sky-clearing high atmospheric pressure dominating our weather this week, “the warm and humid pattern is expected to prevail through the remainder of the week and into the weekend,” weather service meteorologist Tim Cady wrote in a forecast bulletin Tuesday.

WEATHER EXPLAINED: How a Mexican heat dome helped produce Houston’s rare derecho

“As such, the main weather story for the time being remains the potential for elevated heat impacts,” Cady said. “Latest observations show some heat index values breaking into the triple digits (Tuesday) afternoon, a trend that is expected to continue for the foreseeable future.”

The arrival of summer-like heat this early in the year can take a harder toll on us because many of us have not properly acclimated to the heat, forecasters have said. They recommend that you make heat safety a priority if you’re planning any strenuous activity outdoors.  

“The heat impacts of highs near 90… will be compounded further by very high dew point values, generally sitting in the upper 70s across most of the area,” Cady said. Nighttime relief from the heat in Houston will be minimal as “overnight lows will sit in the upper 70s to near 80.”

In Houston’s far northern collar counties, such as Brazos, Madison and Houston counties, the weather service said some isolated storms are possible as the passage of a series of atmospheric disturbances make the air unstable.

“While most of the resultant precipitation should fall closer to the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area, an isolated storm or two can’t be ruled out across positions of the Brazos Valley and Piney Woods,” Cady said.

Thursday to Memorial Day

Thursday’s forecast for Houston will be similar to Wednesday’s: Mostly sunny skies and southerly winds of 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as strong as 25 mph. Temperatures that start out around 77 degrees before dawn will peak at 91 in the afternoon, but our persistent humidity will drive up the heat index. That high of 91 could feel more like 100.

Although Houston temperatures at Bush Intercontinental Airport, the city’s official climate observation site, have reached 91 degrees a handful of times already this month, the heat soars higher into the 90s beginning on Friday.

Friday’s forecast for Houston calls for sunshine and a high temperature of 94 degrees. That would be not only five degrees warmer than the 30-year normal high for May 24, but also just one degree shy of the record high for that date: 95 degrees, set in 2011.

Saturday’s forecast high also is 94, while Sunday could get as hot as 95, forecasters said. Heat index values, or "feels like" temperatures that account for humidity's effect on the body, could be as high as 103 to 105 degrees. 

“For now, the early outlook for Memorial Day is quite hot (widespread mid-90s) and humid,” weather service meteorologist Cameron Self wrote in the forecast bulletin. “Heat index values this weekend and early next week could approach heat advisory criteria.”

Houston on Memorial Day is shaping up to be mostly sunny with a high of 96 degrees, which would make it the city’s hottest May 27 since 2011, when temperatures reached 97 degrees.