Top 10 Weather Events Last Decade/Weekend Forecast/Why 2010 will save you time

WEATHER
Winter Storm Watches or Warnings are in event for portions of the Ohio Valley, northeast, and northwest. On Friday (New Year's Day), highs in the northern plains and western Great Lakes states will only be in the negative single digits and single digits. There will be some snow from St. Louis into the Great Lakes and the Intermountain Region and northern Rockies. There could be some severe storms in Florida. Highs will be in the teens and 20s from the northern Rockies into the central plains and into the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes.

Houston will be sunny on New Year's Day and Saturday. Highs will be in the 50s to low 60s. Lows will be in the 40s Friday and 30s on Saturday. Sunday, clouds and some showers will return. Around Wednesday or Thursday of the first week, an arctic air mass will bring some very chilly air...stay tuned.

SPANISH WORD OF THE DAY
Let's do Happy New Year or feliz año nuevo, pronounced feh-LEEZ AN-yo new-EH-voh. Feliz año nuevo everyone!

Don't forget to answer my New Year's poll at right. And here's another resolution you should make...expose the young ones in your world to the joys and benefits of early language learning. Our DVD series, Let's Learn Spanish with Frank & Paco is a perfect way to get started. And, you'll feel good about purchasing it, knowing that it has won awards from Dr. Toy and homeschool.com as a best educational product. You can find Volumes 1 or 2 at http://www.frankandpaco.com
, http://www.amazon.com, http://www.bn.com, http://www.bestbuy.com, or http://www.ebay.com/. Our ESL (English as a Second Language) version can be found at http://www.frankypaco.com.

AND MORE
Cecilia's End of Year Science Experiment:
Well, this is great news!!! We are going to save 8.7 minutes in 2010 (as compared to 2009). How you ask? Well, I did an experiment. I looked at the number 2009 and the number 2010 and noticed that if you consider the last 2 digits, there is one less stroke when you write 2010. So, I made a hypothesis that writing 2010 all year instead of 2009 will save time (or writing 10 instead of 09). My scientific method was to set a timer for 1 minute and write 09 as many times as possible and then do the same writing 10 as many times as possible. I wrote 09 60 times in one minute. I wrote 10 84 times in one minute. So it takes about 1 second to write 09 and .714 seconds to write 10. Assuming an average of writing these numbers 5 times per day, 365 days in a year...this results in a savings of 8.7 minutes for writing 10 in the year 2010.

So, what will you do with that extra 8.7 minutes? I already used some of the time to do this experiment. Oh well, maybe you can reap the reward of my effort. This is my gift to you!!!

Sarah and I headed to Sugar Land Town Center this evening to celebrate New Year's Eve. On the hour between 5 and 8, they did a countdown (for whatever place in the world was bringing in the New Year). They had a DJ with singing and dancing. There was an interesting and unusual lady made up like a statue with classical music while water streamed out of her fingers. There were men in dinosaur body puppet figures walking on stilts through the crowds. Sugar Land was also celebrating the 50th anniversary of getting its city charter.

The National Weather Service has taken a look back at 2009 and the last decade of weather. The following are some of the big highlights of 2009. (NOTE I DECODED A
COUPLE THINGS SO YOU COULD READ THIS MORE EASILY). Thanks National Weather Service for putting this together for everyone.

AVERAGE TEMP FOR BUSH AIRPORT DECEMBER JUST MISSED THE TOP TEN COOLEST AT 50.2
DEGREES. HOUSTON HOBBY HAD ITS SIXTH COOLEST DEC AND COLLEGE STATION HAD ITS
NINTH COOLEST DECEMBER. TEMPS WERE ABOUT 4 TO 5 DEGREES BELOW
NORMAL. DESPITE A FOUR MONTH DROUGHT FROM MAY 1ST THROUGH SEPT
1ST...THE ANNUAL RAINFALL CAME PRETTY CLOSE TO NORMAL. BOTH COLLEGE STATION AND
BUSH AIRPORT WERE WITHIN AN INCH OF THE ANNUAL AVERAGE. GALVESTON WAS STILL ABOUT
6 INCHES BELOW THEIR ANNUAL AVERAGE RAINFALL.

The discussion for the decade is long but fascinating. So, I am putting the link here. Just so you know, Hurricane Ike made #1, Tropical Storm Allison of 2001 made #2 and the Christmas Snow of 2004 made #3. To see more, check out the full report:

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/productview.php?pil=HGXPNSHGX

Here's hoping for an interesting but safe weather in 2010!

Happy New Year everyone!
Cecilia Sinclair
Wonder Weather Woman