Wednesday and Halloween Forecasts/Learning Meteorology/Halloween Term Origin

HURRICANES AND WEATHER
Still have that disturbed area in the central Atlantic and that is it for the tropics.

Much of the country, early today, woke up to chilly conditions. Wednesday will be a bit warmer in most places…still a lot of sunshine. The cool spots will be the Great Lakes States and New England where highs will be in the 30s. There will be cold rain and even some snow showers from Caribou Maine to Boston. In Houston, we’re looking at another gorgeous day—low humidity after a frosty morning and highs in the 70s. By the way, Conroe was down to 32 this am. And in the Sugar Land area (although the official low was 38), I saw frost on the rooftops as we walked Sarah to school. Houston area highs were only in the 60s.

Halloween forecast calls for coolest temperatures in the Pacific Northwest and the Northeast but it will be the same or just a little warmer most places. Houston highs will be in the low 80s with trick or treating temperatures in the 60s and 70s depending on timing. No rain is expected in Houston on Halloween but there will be showers along the west coast from San Francisco to Seattle.

SPANISH WORD OF THE DAY

So this morning, people were saying to each, gee, it’s freezing. In Spanish that would be muy frío, pronounced mooee (slide the sound together) FREE-oh. It is muy frío outside…take a coat.
Now in case you were wondering, muy is a word that literally means very in Spanish, but like all translations, sometimes it is not literal. Want to learn more, we teach 50 words/phrases in our award winning DVD, Volume 1 of Let's Learn Spanish with Frank and Paco, a Dr. Toy Top 10 Educational Product for 2008. You can order it from www.frankandpaco.com, www.venturaes.com, www.dololanguages.com, www.carlexonline.com,www.thecuriousmindstore.com, www.amazon.com, www.bestbuy.com, and www.barnesandnoble.com.


AND MORE
I am getting recertified for my National Weather Association broadcast seal. In addition to attending the annual conference, I am taking some online courses with exams. COMET is a wonderful resource for learning more about meteorology and anyone can access it. So, all you weather enthusiasts, check it out: comet http://www.comet.ucar.edu. And guess, what—you don’t have to take the test if you don’t want to.

Thanks to my good buddy Lew Fincher, I found out about the release of a wonderful new book.

Here is what Lew sent me:
Galveston: A City on Stilts was a project of the Galveston County Historical Museum, and covers the period of the building of the Seawall, and the raising of the grade over much of the City of Galveston, following the 1900 Storm. The idea came from a collection of photographs that were donated to the museum from the Edworthy Family, whose father photographed Galveston in that era, showing the improvements and how daily life was like as this amazing engineering feat took place. We got a call about a week ago from the publisher, telling us that the First Edition and deep into the second edition was already sold out, well before it will officially go on sale. The publisher is also donating its profits to the GHF in helping restore the historical structures that were damaged during Hurricane Ike.

Thanks Lew for letting us know. That’s what I want in my stocking this Christmas.

Did you know that the term Halloween developed after November 1st was set as All Saints Day…a day to remember all of the saints. Saints of course are the “hallowed ones”. So the night before All Saints Day was considered the “hallowed evening” before. Eventually, it became a contraction—Halloween. Tomorrow, I’ll have some more Halloween trivia.

Have a wonderful Wednesday.

Cecilia Sinclair
Wonder Weather Woman