Stuck in Summer/VORTEX2/Texas -- The Show to See

HURRICANES AND WEATHER
A low pressure trough in the western Caribbean has very little chance of developing due to wind shear. Will keep an eye on the tropics for you.

Meanwhile, the US is stuck in a pattern of troughiness over the western US and hot and humid weather over the southeast. I see very little change for the next week or so. This means that the stormy areas will be from Texas through the Midwest into the Ohio Valley. It will stay cool and comfortable behind this line and hot and sticky to the south. Today there could be some severe weather from Texas to the Ohio Valley.

Houston, here it is...we know the drill. Stay in the a/c as much as you can. Drink those cool drinks. Turn on those fans. And wear the comfortable summer clothes. Summer is here!!!

SPANISH WORD OF THE DAY
Let's do tornado or tornado, pronounced tore-NAH-doh. Spelled the same but pronounced differently. Do you find tornadoes fascinating--check out the VORTEX2 links in the And More section.

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AND MORE
Talking about your staycations...I have a new term...closecations. Well, this one isn't super close to Houston, but it is within driving distance and with all the specials on Southwest (which goes to Amarillo), this might be something to consider. We are going to check out the musical called Texas this summer. I saw it as a teenager and it was an amazing show. Set in the 2nd biggest canyon in the US (Palo Duro Canyon), the backdrop is breathtaking for this musical. But what I remember most is that they simulate lightning onto the stage. It really looked like a lightning bolt had come out of the sky and hit the stage. We'll see how it looks when I see it again this summer. Check it out:
http://www.texas-show.com/

The first phase of VORTEX 2 ends this week. There will be a second phase from May to June in 2010.
VORTEX stands for
Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes Experiment.

It is called VORTEX2 because the original research was done during VORTEX in the 90s. I had the opportunity to interview Dr. Lou Wicker, the leader, back in 2000 or so. He was working at Texas A & M. They had almost run out of funds when in the last week, they were fortunate to have an amazing outbreak of tornadoes (including one F5). As a result of that research, warning lead times were reduced and the understanding of the physics of tornadoes was improved tremendously. Now with better equipment, VORTEX2 hopes to enlighten us even more.

Today might be a good day for VORTEX2 with the moderate risk of severe storms in southern Kansas, extreme northern Oklahoma. According to the Storm Prediction Center, there is a good chance for supercell storms which could produce strong long-lived tornadoes. Good luck VORTEX2 team! By the way, Dr. Lou Wicker is leading the research again. Here is the link to the official site (photo of Dr. Wicker to the right).

http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/vortex2/

And here is the Facebook site...you too can become a fan!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/VORTEX2/57534205998

Have a terrific Tuesday everyone!
Cecilia Sinclair
Wonder Weather Woman