Thursday, April 9, 2009

Severe Weather Update - Late Thursday 4/9

There have been 12 tornadoes from northeast Texas through eastern Oklahoma, eastern Kansas and western Arkansas.

I have updated the severe risk graphics for the next 2 days.

Houston will get a nice wind shift by midday Friday...that will drop humidity a bit. Latest eta model run indicates a heavy downpour in Houston by daybreak Sunday. But other models not so bullish. I would say have an indoor backup plan for that Easter egg hunt. Will update as soon as I can.

Cecilia Sinclair
Wonder Weather Woman

Forecast through Sunday/Passover and Seder Supper

HURRICANES AND WEATHER
Some storms are already building in Oklahoma and take note of the moderate and slight risk areas for severe weather (figures at right). There will also be some rain/snow in the Pacific Northwest, Intermountain region, northern Plains, and northern New England. 30s, 40s, and 50s across the northern tier of states but very much spring warmth across the south with highs in the 70s and 80s. Easter Sunday, storms will develop over northwest and north central Texas and western Oklahoma and progress eastward into east Texas, eastern Oklahoma, Arkansas and western Louisiana by late in the day. All of these areas could have some showers at any time on Easter Sunday. So, keep an eye to the sky as you and the Easter Bunny plan those Easter egg hunts.

Houston will be muggy today with highs close to 80. An isolated shower is possible. Weather will stay mild into the weekend. There will be a few showers during the first half of Easter Sunday with some storms later in the day.

SPANISH WORD OF THE DAY
Let's do basket or cesta, pronounced SEHS-tah. Don't forget to get your Easter cesta ready for Sunday.

The colors are so vivid right now (at least here in Houston). We've had some rain and mild weather. It reminds me of when we shot our first 3 volumes of our award winning DVD, Let's Learn Spanish with Frank & Paco. Everthing was so green from early summer rain!!! Yesterday, we completed the back end editing of the 2nd volume and the front end part is coming along nicely. Will let you know when Volume 2 is ready. In the meantime, you can order Volume 1 from www.frankandpaco.com/. You can also order from http://www.venturaes.com/, http://www.dololanguages.com/, http://www.carlexonline.com,www.thecuriousmindstore.com/, http://www.amazon.com/, http://www.bestbuy.com/, and http://www.barnesandnoble.com/. For our English as a Second Language (ESL) version, got to http://www.frankypaco.com/.

AND MORE

For all of our Jewish friends, I hope you and your families will have a wonderful Passover observance. Contrary to widespread belief, Catholics do notice and sometimes observe Passover. I know that some believe that Catholics don't like Jewish people. But it is definitely not my experience growing up Catholic. In fact, it was always quite clear that Jesus was Jewish and that our faith evolved as a result of his work. We study the Old and New Testaments. And we look back to our Jewish ancestry/base as our beginning.

In my teenage years, our pastor held a Seder supper for the parishioners. My mother and I attended. Unbenownst to me, the pastor was following some sort of formula where you ceremonially drink 4 glasses of fermented beverage--he used burgundy. My mother discretely sipped all of these offerings as she never liked the taste of alcohol. But I in my zeal to observe the ceremony to the fullest, drank all offerings completely. Well, it wasn't until after the four drinks that we ate a Seder supper. I got up to use the restroom and was quite inebbriated. Now, I have to disclose that I was very naive and just had no idea what alcohol can do. So, I was somewhat startled. My mother (who had not really realized what I was doing) kind of clucked her tongue and said to me, "You didn't have to drink all of it!!!" To be honest, I don't remember anything else from that evening. But I will say, it was interesting and I am glad to have grown up with a loving and accepting and respecting parish. This has always been my experience as a Catholic...one of including and embracing people of all faiths, especially the Jewish faith.

Have a great day everyone!
Cecilia Sinclair
Wonder Weather Woman