It's All About the Heat!/T.S. Andres/Gulf low pressure

HURRICANES AND WEATHER
The National Hurricane Center is monitoring an area of low pressure (with less than 30% chance of developing) just off the coast off of northern Mexico. This could bring some much needed rain to the Rio Grande Valley.

In the Pacific, late Tuesday, Tropical Storm Andres had 70 mph winds...almost hurricane strength. It was making its closest pass by the west coast of Mexico and will soon be heading northwest and weakening as it encounters cooler waters.

The big story in the US is the heat wave. Many of the records that are falling are from 1980 when a $1 billion/1250+ fatality heat wave scorched the central US. As I look at the current pattern, it is similar to what happened in 1980...high pressure over the central US. There could be some severe storms on the northern edge of the high pressure on Tuesday. Most of the country will have highs in the 90s with the west coast, northwest, and northeast being the exceptions. Even the northern central states will have highs in the 80s. Western California, your cool days are numbered as the ridge will eventually slide westward an then you will get a nice warmup.

On Tuesday, Houston hit 101, breaking the old record of 99 set in 1990. The record for Wednesday is 99 and this should be broken as well. More record heat is possible through the week with some cooler temperatures (highs of 96 or so as the high pressure eases westward).

SPANISH WORD OF THE DAY
Let's do heat or calor, pronounced cah-LOR. Everyone is talking about the calor. To learn about heat indices, go to the AND MORE section.

It was 2 years ago today that we shot the party scene of our award winning video. It was a hot and steamy day. And, just when we wrapped shooting, a thunderstorm blew in and ripped up all of the set decorations. We finished just in the nick of time. To get your copy of Let's Learn Spanish with Frank & Paco, Volume 1, order 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
Heat Indices will be running high over the next several days. The Heat Index is how it feels when you factor in the humidity. To figure out the heat index for your day, go to:
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/ssd/html/heatwv.htm

Be safe and stay cool everyone!
Cecilia Sinclair
Wonder Weather Woman