Dry and Pleasant But Another Change Soon/El Nino Impact on Winter

HURRICANES AND WEATHER
Tropical Atlantic is quiet. There is one area with between a 30 and 50% chance of developing in the eastern Pacific.

Jet Stream is on the move this week. Another cold front will sweep through the plains and eastern US on Thursday and Friday bringing rain and even some severe weather. On Wednesday, look for some severe storms over the central plains. Highs will be in the 50s and 60s across the Pacific Northwest, Rockies and much of the northeast. First Winter Storm Warning of the season is in effect for the mountains near Salt Lake City (elevations above 8,000 feet). Across the south, highs will be in the 80s. There will be some 90s across the desert southwest.

Houston will be mild with lows in the 60s and highs in the 80s. Rain returns Thursday afternoon and there could be some severe storms especially early Friday. More rain is possible on Sunday.

SPANISH WORD OF THE DAY
Let's do cat or gato, pronounced gah-TOH. Taking care of gatos can make your feet hurt. See related story in the And More section.

There are no cats but there is one dog named Max in our award winning Volume 1 DVD, Let's Learn Spanish with Frank & Paco. Volume 2 should arrive this week. Order today from www.frankandpaco.com/, 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, go to http://www.frankypaco.com/.

AND MORE
New figure at right shows El Nino and La Nina winter weather patterns. The latest report from the Climate Prediction Center indicates that sea surface temperatures (eastern Pacific) are running 1 degree above normal. And they are forecasting that the El Nino pattern will strengthen and last through the winter. For the upcoming winter, this likely will mean that much of the south will be wet and on the cool side. For the Ohio Valley it likely means dry weather. From Alaska through western and most of southern Canada as well as the northern one or two tiers of states (through the Great Lakes) will be warmer than usual.

My good friend Mollie gave me a tip that kids eat for $2.50 on Sunday evenings at the SouperSalad in Sugar Land (Town Center area). I sent SouperSalad an email requesting more information (like is this deal for every Souper Salad). So, I will let you know.

Megan is loving life at the cat hospital. She is definitely in her element taking care of those cats. But, her feet are tired...she had foot surgery in May. If anyone has any suggestions for her, please let me know.

I briefly mentioned that Sarah turned 8 on Sunday. Well, let me tell you what that rascal did this time. I had wrapped her gifts and put them in our master closet. I figured surely Gordy or I will hear if she tried to get into them. As I have mentioned before, she is often up well before the crack of dawn. Well, that little stinker (after having already kicked Gordy out of the bed around 3 am) woke up around 4:30 and at some point got into those gifts. When I woke up around 7 (and by the way, she had tried to get me up a few times between 4:30 and 7), she said, "I'm sorry I opened all of my presents". I couldn't believe me eyes. She had somehow (without me waking up) dragged all of the presents into the living room and opened them. I did not hear a thing. I had no inkling of what she was doing. There was paper and cardboard everywhere. What was I to do...she was the birthday girl. Oh well!

We had a birthday greeting on the marquee in front of Sarah's school. On Monday evening, I decided to drive over and get a snapshot. Well, I was just in the nick of time. The sign changing volunteer was literally reaching to start pulling the letters down. And I cried, "stop, stop...let me take a picture before you do that". So, she laughed and backed up so I could do just that. Now, that was cutting it close. I guess greetings demand is very high and they only leave up the messages for about 2 days. I had just noticed it that morning. Almost missed it completely!!!

Well, don't miss out on the nice weather on Wednesday!
Enjoy!
Cecilia Sinclair
Wonder Weather Woman