Church Festival/Monday Forecast/Mayor David Wallace/Hee Haw

HURRICANES AND WEATHER
There is an area of disturbed weather in the western Caribbean. It is showing signs of getting organized. It is close to land...but maybe we will get a Paloma yet. I like that name, don't you?

What a great day for being outdoors. The St. Laurence fall festival had perfect weather. Everyone was having a good time!!! The only down side of all this dry, peaceful weather is that we are at risk for high levels of ozone to develop. And, you should know that today we had some unhealthy levels of ozone which formed. An Ozone Watch is in effect for Monday...this means conditions are favorable for high levels of ozone to develop.

For Houston, Monday and Tuesday will be pleasant with lows in the 50s and 60s and highs in the 80s. Some showers are possible Wednesday as a low pressure area cuts off over the central plains. Looks like it will hang around a couple days which means we will cool off and should get a couple rounds of showers before it exits to the northeast by the weekend.

Conditions will be cool for the northwest, northern plains, and northeast. Look for some showers in the northwest.

SPANISH WORD FOR THE DAY
Since we were at a church festival, I thought we could learn the word for church--iglesia, pronounced ee-glay-SEE-ah. I love to go to festivals at our iglesia.

Speaking of that, Sarah was back to her usual energetic self. That's her at right dancing on the stage. And check out the kid behind her--he was a dancing machine doing a combination of hip-hop, break-dancing and gymnastics. Sarah had to steer clear of those flying feet.

Your kids will be dancing and learning with our award winning Spanish DVD is available through http://www.frankandpaco.com/, http://www.venturaes.com/, http://www.dololanguages.com/,http://www.carlexonline.com/,http://www.thecuriousmindstore.com/, amazon.com, bestbuy.com, and barnesandnoble.com. Volume 1 of the Frank and Paco series is a Dr. Toy Top 10 Educational Product for 2008.

AND MORE
It's easy to forget that many people are still recovering and will be recovering from Ike for some time. Our church is adopting 33 families from Galveston who are staying at a hotel in Rosenberg. If you have clothes or time to donate to help them, contact tschindler@stlaurence.org.

Former Sugar Land mayor David Wallace is having a book signing Monday evening from 6:30 to 8:30 pm at the Sugar Land Marriott Town Square. David will be signing his book Titled "One Nation Under Blog". Congratulations David!

Helping Sarah with a science project today, I learned about the thorax vs. the abdomen of an insect. You see the thorax is the part between the head and the end of the insect. It is where the legs and wings are attached. We have to make an insect which has the head of one type of insect, the thorax of another, and the absdomen of yet another. The abdomen is the end part. Now, don't you feel enlightened?

I was reminiscing with Sarah about watching shows like ShaNaNa and HeeHaw with my dad. So I will close with a link I found to a 9 minute beginning segment of a HeeHaw show. No matter what you say, that show was funny and entertaining. And once you get that theme song in your head, it's hard to get it out. Enjoy!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IjWptL1-PQ

Have a great week everyone!!!
Cecilia Sinclair
Wonder Weather Woman

Omar/Full Immersion Spanish/Matt Lavine/Sunday Forecast

HURRICANES AND WEATHER
Omar is now just a remnant low in the Atlantic. There are a couple areas of disturbed weather in the Caribbean and the central Atlantic, but nothing to write home about. So at least for now, our statistics of no storms for Texas after October 17th is holding.

The weather in Houston was sunny and dry today...just delightful. Look for a repeat performance on Sunday. Lows will be in the 50s and highs will be in the low 80s. Conroe did drop to 49 early today and should make it to the 40s again on Sunday morning.

SPANISH WORD OF THE DAY
Since it was so sunny today, that will be our word--sunny or soleado, pronounced sew-lay-AH-do. The little girl said my favorite weather is soleado weather.

I went to the Texas Foreign Language Association conference at what used to be the Wyndham Hotel at Greenspoint. Now, Hilton has taken it over. I enjoyed seeing all the vendors, especially Dolo Publications with Patti Lozano. That is one of our sales partners. Patti and her mom, Renate have such an interesting story. Renate is originally from Austria and is fluent in German. As a youngster she moved to Brazil and learned Portugese. Then at 14, she moved to the United States and learned Spanish. I assume she learned English early on as she is quite fluent. Her daughter Patti also learned Spanish and ended up marrying an industrious man from Mexico. She helped him learn English. Patti and her husband have 3 talented sons, 2 of whom I met today. The ones I met are also into music. You see Patti teaches language using songs. Renate helps with the German teaching work. You can see their products at http://www.dololanguages.com.

I also met the folks from Carlex. They said our DVD is selling well. Hip! Hip! Hooray!!!

You also might be interested to know about one teacher I met. She teaches high school Spanish. Well, she told me our product was too easy for her 4 year old who is already speaking in Spanish sentences. So, I gave her our English teaching version--the Aprendamos one and said that she could use that as a full immersion product as the native language of it is Spanish. She was so excited about that.

Our introductory award winning Spanish DVD is available through http://www.frankandpaco.com/, http://www.venturaes.com/, http://www.dololanguages.com/,http://www.carlexonline.com/,http://www.thecuriousmindstore.com/, amazon.com, bestbuy.com, and barnesandnoble.com. Volume 1 of the Frank and Paco series is a Dr. Toy Top 10 Educational Product for 2008.

AND MORE
Checked in with Matt Lavine. He was all set to work for CW again tonight! He had already had a busy day running his little girls to a festival. Oh yes, I remember when going to work was the easier part of the day. I think every parent gets that. Parenting--the toughest job you'll ever love and be going crazy over at the same time.

Have a happy Sunday everyone!
Cecilia Sinclair
Wonder Weather Woman

Fire Drill/Surprise Meresa/Ike Tarps Are Going Nowhere Fast

HURRICANES AND WEATHER
Well if you live by statistics, then you can put away the hurricane supplies. Today (October 17th) is the last known date for a tropical storm to hit the Texas Coast--it was a storm which hit Freeport in 1938.

Now, don't be too cocky. Storms have approached the Texas coast even in November, but troughs have always whisked them away at the last minute. Just a reminder that records are made to be broken...Allison made landfall on June 5, 2001--you can't forget that deluge!!! That June 5th date broke the record for the earliest Texas landfall of a tropical storm. By the way, Allison is still considered the costliest tropical storm on record (not hurricane) causing $5 billion in damage.

Well, it's not feeling tropical here at all. In fact the cloud cover is almost completely gone and it is going to get down into the 50s tonight. Highs both Saturday and Sunday in Houston will be in the upper 70s to low 80s. Saturday night will also be chilly--might even get some 40s for outlying areas. Everyone say ooohhhh---ahhhhh.

Much of the country will be cool and dry. Showers and the cold front will move off the eastern seaboard on Saturday.

SPANISH WORD OF THE DAY
My dear friend Meresa was given a surprise party this evening which Sarah and I managed to attend. So, the word for today is surprise or sorpresa, pronounced sore-PRAY-sah. The party was a big sorpresa to Meresa. Happy Birthday Meresa!!!

The Texas Foreign Language Association (TFLA) is having a conference at the Greenspoint Wyndham. I am heading up there Saturday to deliver some of our language DVDs to Dolo Publications, one of our vendors. Have I mentioned that I hired 2 bilingual educators and 1 linguist to create an award winning DVD series for children called Let's Learn Spanish with Frank & Paco? Yes! It's true. And you can order one of those fabulous DVDs for the little ones at http://www.frankandpaco.com/, http://www.venturaes.com/, http://www.dololanguages.com/,http://www.carlexonline.com/,http://www.thecuriousmindstore.com/, amazon.com, bestbuy.com, and barnesandnoble.com. Volume 1 of the Frank and Paco series is a Dr. Toy Top 10 Educational Product for 2008.

Well I sent out the evites to the Longaberger Party - Death by Chocolate for Friday, November 14th at 7 pm. If you would like an invite, email me at cecilia_sinclair@yahoo.com. Every person who attends will receive a free copy of our language DVD. Plus, we're going to eat a lot chocolate and have fun!!!

AND MORE
Well you might notice that in the photo with Meresa (the birthday girl), Sarah looks very tired. We got our flu shots today and I think it might have tuckered her out. She's crashed on the couch right now. I've never had the flu since I took one of these shots. But it does make my arm a little sore. Sometimes, I feel a little more tired a day or two afterward.

One more thing about The National Weather Association workshop. Tuesday night was our wedding anniversary. It was 10:30 pm and all of a sudden the fire alarm went off. Well, we were on the 18th floor. A voice comes over the intercom and says to stay in your room. I thought that is quite strange as I have never heard of people in a high rise being told to stay in their room if there is the possibility of a fire. Eventually, we decided to hike on down the 18 flights. We weren't alone. So did a whole bunch of people. End result--false alarm. Maybe we should have stayed in our rooms.

On the way to Meresa's party, we drove along Beltway 8. There are so many tarps on rooftops. And we just had some heavy rain in the last few days. A friend of mine whose roof is damaged is still trying to round up someone to fix his roof. It is going to be a while. And guess what? This week's rain got into his house. So, there was even more damage done. Gordy wants to know why more roofers aren't converging on the Houston area.

Two more days and the boat poll closes...in case you didn't read about it, my brother-in-law was charged $6000 for his boat to be moved from the marina to the shipyard. He'll be back from working in China in a couple days and I sure would like to tell him what you all thought about that. So, don't forget to vote yes if you think he got ripped off or no if you think that was reasonable. Look below the poll for a picture of his boat.

Have a great weekend everyone and be safe!
Cecilia Sinclair
Wonder Weather Woman

National Weather Association Wraps/Matt Lavine Update/Southwest Airlines Rocks

HURRICANES AND WEATHER
Well we made it home no problem last night...the heavy rain had ended (although our plane was delayed in arriving in Birmingham due to the weather). After we got home, we had a few heavy downpours and rumbles of thunder. Southwest Airlines, we love you!

Omar is barely a hurricane and moving rapidly northeastward away from the Bahamas. It should weaken over the next several days. The area of disturbed weather in the western Caribbean is over Mexico.

Definitely a change to fall weather for much of the country. Houston area rain has tapered off and it will be cooler over the next few days. Friday will start out in the low 60s and highs will be in the upper 70s with skies clearing. The weekend will be spectacular--lows in the 50s and highs in the low 80s with sunshine and low humidity--make sure to check out St. Laurence's fall festival on Saturday evening and Sunday. St. Laurence is in Sugar Land at the intersection of Austin Parkway and Sweetwater. I'll be working the cake walk on Sunday.

Rain has moved east out of Louisville and it will be a chilly night with temperatures dropping into the 40s and skies clearing. Highs will be in the 70s on Friday. Enjoy! By the way, Louisville, your rain today was .11 inches.

Frontal boundary will move across the eastern U.S. over the next 24 hours bringing some showers (with some thunderstorms in the southern states). Looks like a pleasantly cooler weekend shaping up for much of the country.

SPANISH WORD OF THE DAY
I had to post the photo of Betsy Kling--it's just her. I like that adjective exuberant or exuberante in Spanish. That is pronounced aches-oo-bear-RAHN-tay. That's what we love about Betsy--she is so exuberante.

By the way it was thanks to Betsy's energy and dedication that (if I got that number right), more than $9000 were collected for NWA scholarships. Way to go Betsy and all the folks who participated in the golf tournament and raffle.

We have received our first one thousand copies of our English teaching DVD for spanish speakers. It's called Aprendamos Inglés con Frank y Paco, Volumen 1. I'll let you know when the Spanish web site will be up and running. Please tell your teacher friends, family and friends in Mexico etc. about it! I'll be uploading the information to our distributors and Amazon.com on Friday.

In the meantime, for Spanish learning and all of the benefits such as enhanced cognitive development in children, you can buy our award winning DVD, Let's Learn Spanish with Frank & Paco, Volume 1, a Dr. Toy Top 10 Educational Product of 2008, at http://www.frankandpaco.com, http://www.venturaes.com, http://www.dololanguages.com, http://www.carlexonline.com, http://www.thecuriousmindstore.com, amazon.com, bestbuy.com, and barnesandnoble.com.

Dolo Publications is a wonderful web site with a variety of language teaching products. You can check it out at http://www.dololanguages.com. I just received one of their books with accompanying CD called Music That Teaches Spanish! It has a plethora of activities and of course the music on CD to encourage early language learning. They also have products for German and French.

AND MORE
I've gotten back to work and it has been busy, busy, busy. But I wanted to make sure and tell you about some more exciting talks at the National Weather Association annual meeting (which by the way, concluded today--so safe travels home everyone). Please know that I would love to speak about all of them, but I will be here all night if I do.

First of all, there was a fascinating series of talks about the "Super Tuesday" outbreak of tornadoes back in February of this year. I saw for myself the damage to Clinton, Arkansas as we drive through there every July on our annual trip to Table Rock Lake in southwest Missouri. I am no tornado damage assessor by any stretch of the imagination, but you could easily tell that a tornado had gone through there because of the way the trees and structures were twisted. It was an amazing footprint of mother nature.

With the upcoming elections, Katie Mercadante gave a fascinating talk about the demographics of voters (democrat vs. republican) turnout according to weather conditions. Some of her findings contradicted other study findings which would suggest that republicans turn out in greater numbers in times of inclement weather. Yet, her findings showed that democrats actually did. She has plans to study this further. Please keep in mind, that she did do a lot of filtering to hone her research focus.

There was a spirited debate about the appropriateness of issuing numerous tornado warnings vs. one large tornado warning in a situation were multiple vortices are rapidly developing along a fast moving line during a serious severe weather outbreak. Ted Funk of the NWS in Louisville cited the Super Tuesday outbreak as a time when they put a large area under a Tornado Warning. It was interesting to hear the perspectives of media vs. emergency management vs. NWS. I can tell you from my own broadcast experience that what I really need and want to give the viewers is specifics on just where the tornadoes are (or will be) and where they are heading. In the Houston area, you get so many warnings (sometimes a stack 1 inch thick for one round of bad weather) that the public can become overwhelmed and confused. They want and need to know exactly where the trouble is. Toward the end of my on air career, I was less likely to mention specific warnings and more likely to point out where I thought the problem locations and threats were. After all, isn't this what the viewers needs to know? You might be surprised at how many people don't even know what county they are in or at least how to tell from a map. But if you say their town and even better, a nearby intersection, they'll get it.

I really enjoyed hearing about upcoming changes in radar and satellite technology, especially in the way Brian Motta explained it--multiplatform, multisensor products and the fact that there is going to be a lot of terrific data but how do you filter it down quickly to what you need for specific situations? It is an exciting time indeed.

Thanks so much to everyone who worked so hard at The National Weather Association annual meeting. We really appreciate it!!! And a big congratulations to Dave Knapp for his much deserved member of the year award. I have worked with Dave on a number of NWA projects (and these were only a tiny fraction of his overall projects). He really has done so much for NWA.

Checked in with Matt Lavine today--he got through the first weekend at CW here in Houston. It's great to see him back on the air!!! Good job Matt!
Happy almost weekend everyone!
Cecilia Sinclair
Wonder Weather Woman

Omar/Getting Home/National Weather Association Awards

HURRICANES AND WEATHER
Gordy and I are heading back to Houston and I hope we are able to land tonight at about 8:45 pm…those of you in the Houston area know that is has been raining on and off since yesterday. This is due to a trough of low pressure that is on the Texas/Mexico coast. Although the storms are moving along right now…as the cold front approaches tonight, there will be heavier rain. We may be spending the night in Birmingham. I’m hoping that the timing coinciding with nightfall will help some…but these tropically enhanced events are tricky.

Omar is now a hurricane and will move across the northern islands of the Lesser Antilles during the next 24 hours as the storm strengthens. Then it will move into the Atlantic…not a concern for the Gulf Coast. Tropical Depression #16 will not become Tropical Storm Paloma…just too close to land…moving west…a rain maker for Honduras and Guatemala.

Houston will have rain into Thursday pm…then cooling off and a nice weekend unfolding with sunshine, lows humidity, lows in the 50s and highs in the 80s.

SPANISH WORD OF THE DAY
Bernie Meisner was teasing me this afternoon…what would be my word of the day…I think it should be interesting or interesante, pronounced een-tear-ay-SAHN-tay. The talks this morning were especially interesante.

Mom called and our English teaching (for Spanish speakers) DVDs have arrived!!! So, I’ll be jumping on that once we get back. But for those of you who want to have your little ones learn Spanish, you can buy our award winning DVD, Let's Learn Spanish with Frank & Paco, Volume 1, a Dr. Toy Top 10 Educational Product of 2008 at http://www.frankandpaco.com/, Ventura's Educational Supply, Dolo Publications, Carlex Inc., The Curious Mind Store, amazon.com, bestbuy.com, and barnesandnoble.com.

AND MORE
There were so many great talks this morning. I can’t wait to tell you about them all. But right now, I am going to catch a plane! Be safe everyone. Oh yes…congratulations to all the NWA Award winners—especially Dave Knapp who won member of the year!!!

Cecilia Sinclair
Wonder Weather Woman

Omar/Paloma/Greg Forbes/Jack Hayes/Lance Berkmann/Louisville Slugger

HURRICANES AND WEATHER
T.D. #15, in the eastern Caribbean, is now Omar. Omar is will eventually move into the Atlantic…so not a worry to the Gulf coast. Meanwhile, Tropical Depression #16 has formed off the coast of Honduras. It will probably become Tropical Storm Paloma on Wednesday, but it is very close to the coast of Honduras. Regardless…this will be a rainmaker for Honduras, possibly Belize, and Guatemala.

There were heavy downpours in parts of the Houston area today. Thanks Kim Matthews for your spotter report! A trough is just offshore and will produce some heavy rain…some offshore, some mainly in the coastal counties. Meanwhile cold front approaches late Wednesday and generates a line of storms…timing—late Wednesday into early Thursday. A nice weekend shaping up with cool mornings, low humidity and mild afternoons.

For Louisville, one more day of mild weather with a few showers Wednesday and scattered showers Wednesday night. Rain continues into at least the first half of Thursday with noticeably cooler temperatures—highs only in the 60s and 40s for Friday morning.

SPANISH WORD FOR THE DAY
Today is our wedding anniversary so the word for today is love or amor, pronounced AH-more. My husband is my amor. Happy anniversary Gordy!

Early language learning enhances cognitive development and improves memory. And if you want the youngsters in your life to develop proper pronunciation, have them start language learning early. A great way to do that is by purchasing our award winning DVD, Let's Learn Spanish with Frank & Paco, Volume 1, a Dr. Toy Top 10 Educational Product of 2008 at http://www.frankandpaco.com/, Ventura's Educational Supply, Dolo Publications, Carlex Inc., The Curious Mind Store, amazon.com, bestbuy.com, and barnesandnoble.com.

AND MORE
Lots of great talks today at the National Weather Association but we did take a couple hours to sneak away to the Louisville slugger museum and factory. We were given an excellent 30 minute tour of the factory area. I got to touch a baseball that was custom ordered by Lance Berkmann (Astros). He’ll get it next, but he doesn’t know it was blessed by me first. Ha! Ha!

Today’s keynote address was by Jack Hayes, National Weather Service Director and perhaps even more exciting, Good Morning America went live with Sam Champion outside the conference hotel!!! This was definitely some excellent and much deserved publicity for the National Weather Association. Kudos to our president, John Scala, for getting all of this arranged. This workshop has had record attendance…about 560 folks.

Greg Forbes of The Weather Channel gave a talk about the tornado outbreak of 1974. Although he had done a thorough evaluation of the Monticello damage, he had not had a chance to see Xenia's. I was in Ohio in 1974 and I saw the damage...it was something else!!! Dr. Forbes compared the available radar technology to the improvements we have today.

There were so many terrific talks today, but I definitely had some favorites. Jeffrey Craven, was brave and extremely self-deprecating in his talk about a rare January tornado which touched down on January 7 in Wisconsin. Jeffrey is a fantastic severe weather forecaster, but even this one almost got the upper hand. Jeffrey was generous to give credit to the weather intern at the time who really thought mention of tornadoes should be in the forecast. I commend you Jeff on coming forth with this important talk—reminding us all not to stop looking at the weather carefully in all cases. I personally have had at least a few similar experiences. It is humbling and educational. I think every person in that room could relate to Jeff’s experience.

I learned a lot from Kristopher Nedka’s talk about Aviation Turbulence Signatures. Did you know that 1000 people a year are injured by turbulence? He showed one example where standard IR imagery failed to show turbulence which definitely showed up on the water vapor imagery. He also talked about overshooting tops and Rapid Anvil Expansion. There is no doubt that satellite imagery can provide our pilots with very important routing information.

Well it is our anniversary, so I gotta run! We already had a lovely dinner at the Rivue—voted Louisville’s most romantic restaurant. Our dessert was definitely hot…they lit it before serving!!!

Cecilia Sinclair
Wonder Weather Woman

Nana/Omar/Learning About Weather at NWA Conference

HURRICANES AND WEATHER

Nana is weakening…now only a tropical depression. And, Tropical Depression #15 has formed in the eastern Caribbean. This will likely become a tropical storm (probably Omar) on Tuesday. Also, an area in the western Caribbean will probably become a depression on Tuesday. So, stay tuned. There are no immediate threats to the Gulf Coast.

Meanwhile for Houston, it is more warm and muggy weather. Look for a line of showers (possibly thunderstorms on Wednesday) into Thursday as the next front approaches. This front will ease back to the north and finally make its way south through Houston, giving way to a dry and pleasantly cooler weekend.

Louisville will stay mild into at least Wednesday night when it will finally cool into the 40s. Look for a shower or two Wednesday.

SPANISH WORD OF THE DAY
Being at the National Weather Association workshop is allowing me to learn lots of new things. So, that is my word for the day…new or Nuevo/nueva, pronounced new-A-voh/new-A-vah. The use is gender specific…the o ending when modifying masculine words…the a ending when modifying feminine words. The Mount Washington presentation had record data which was nueva to me.

I’ve been sharing with the meteorologists at the workshop that early language learning has been shown to increase math and science scores on standardized tests and to improve scientific hypothesizing. Those are just 2 of the benefits. So, help those budding scientists in your life… Give them a fun yet rewarding tool—get our award winning DVD, Let's Learn Spanish with Frank & Paco, Volume 1, a Dr. Toy Top 10 Educational Product of 2008 at http://www.frankandpaco.com/, Ventura's Educational Supply, Dolo Publications, Carlex Inc., The Curious Mind Store, amazon.com, bestbuy.com, and barnesandnoble.com.

AND MORE
One of the pictures on the right is an interesting sign we saw yesterday along the Ohio River. I was wondering if they were that punitive with folks whose cars were parked along the river’s edge. Well, today I was at very interesting talk about The Great Flood of 1937 in Louisville, KY. Maybe that sign means that if there is a sudden rise in the river, any cars along the edge will be swept away. That talk by the way was given by Rick Bell.

Another little addendum to yesterday’s blog…the waitress who told us about the Ike induced power outages in Louisville also mentioned that they too had run out of gas because of the gas stations being out of power. And there were shortages of certain perishable groceries. I guess we in Houston were all so busy recovering from Ike, we just did not know what other terror Ike was causing.

Tom Skilling was the keynote speaker…he ended by talking about chemical threats and how they are handling by our emergency managers. By the way, in Houston, the Hazmat responders are some of the best in the world. I met Tom's brother, Jeff, at a Christmas party years ago. All he wanted to talk about was his brother Tom. He was so proud of him being such a successful on air meteorologist.

I loved today’s talk by Brian Clark about working on Mount Washington. He talked about not only his own experiences but also how in 1934, observers measured a 231 mph wind—later testing of the anemometer indicated that (due to something that had happened to the device) the actual wind speed might have been 237—bottom line—that’s fast!!! The station is not and never will be automated. Brian has had to service the weather instrumentation in 100 plus mph winds. Yikes!!! By the way, Brian has a very nice broadcast quality voice for anyone looking for a person to do voice work.

I also enjoyed the Hurricane Iniki talk by Wes Browning. Iniki pounded the northernmost Hawaiian Island, Kauii back in 1992. I was there a few years after the storm hit. One local told me they were without power for 2 months. The community had to come together for survival. Neighbors became lifelong friends. There was an interesting discussion about what would happen if this same type of storm would hit Oahu/Honolulu Bay. Half the city would go under water.

The day ending with a dinner cruise on the Belle of Louisville paddle boat. It was a really fun evening with most of the 500 plus workshop attendees on board. The view of the city was absolutely gorgeous. See photos at right.

Well…gotta run!
Cecilia Sinclair
Wonder Weather Woman