Weather this Week/2010 Hurricane Season Forecast/ChickFila Spicy Chicken

WEATHER
The jet stream is parked along the northern tier of states with just a slight dip into the western Great Lakes. There will a few spots with slight risks of severe storms. Highs will be in the 70s to 90s from the northeast to the southwest. Highs will be in the 60s along the west coast and over the Rockies with a few cooler spots in the higher elevations.

Houston hit 97 on the 28th (one degree shy of the record). Through the coming weekend, the weather will stay hot and humid with highs in the middle 90s each day and a slight chance for seabreeze type thunderstorms each afternoon and early evening.

SPANISH WORD OF THE DAY
Let's do season or estación, pronounced eh-stah-see-OWN. A new estación is about to start and I'm not talking about summer. To learn more, go to the AND MORE section.

Time to get your children entertained and educated--order my award winning DVDs, Let's Learn Spanish with Frank & Paco. They are on the shelf (in the education section) at Barnes & Noble stores or you can order them from 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
CHICK-FIL-A'S NEW SPICY CHICKEN SANDWICH
I got to try the new spicy crispy sandwich premiering at Chick-Fil-A on June 6th. I must say...it is quite delicious!!! It's kind a flavor but if you don't like spicy...stay away because there is an after kick. You can always use the old trick of drinking or eating something with sugar in it. I think it was just right. MMMMMMM!

COUSINS AND THE CHRISTMAS HOUSE
My Aunt Shirley's funeral was beautiful. Got to catch up with lots of first, 2nd and 3rd cousins and once and twice removed and so on. While there, I visited with the daughter's of my great-grandma Tekla's brother. Janie, Esther and Dorothy are the Minten sisters. They referred to my great-grandma as Aunt Tilly and said her formal name Tekla is actually the Dutch equivalent of the English name Matilda.

Anyway, the sisters have an amazing "Christmas" house between Falfurrias and Premont. I've been there and it is amazing!!! Even the closets have Christmas. And they have a Christmas shop! It's a nice cool thought not that we are in the throes of summer heat. The house is open for tours from September into March. But they do open for tours during other months on request. For more information, go to:

http://www.santastxworkshop.blogspot.com/

HURRICANE SEASON FORECASTS
Tomorrow (June 1st) is the first day of the 2010 Atlantic Basin hurricane season (which runs through November 30th). Here is a summary of all the forecasts:

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released its forecast just a few days ago. According to NOAA, the average season has 11 named storms, 6 of them hurricanes, 2 or those major hurricanes (Category 3 or stronger--winds of 111 or higher). They are expecting an active to extremely active season with 14 to 23 named storms, 8 to 14 of those hurricanes, 3 to 7 of those major hurricanes. They don't put out a forecast for where they expect landfalls. They are expecting a busy season because of the ending of the El Nino episode (and thus less wind shear), warmer than normal sea surface temperatures in the Atlantic and the fact that we are still in a multi-decadal period of above normal activity. Here is the official report:

http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2010/20100527_hurricaneoutlook.html

Also here is the official list of names for the 2010 season:
Alex
Bonnie
Colin
Danielle
Earl
Fiona
Gaston
Hermine
Igor
Julia
Karl
Lisa
Matthew
Nicole
Otto
Paula
Richard
Shary
Tomas
Virginie
Walter

Dr. William Gray and his colleagues from Colorado State University are expecting 15 named storms, 8 of those hurricanes and 4 of those major. I will tell you that their revised forecast is coming out on June 2nd (2 days from now) and another on August 4th. They are also forecasting a 69% chance of a major hurricane hitting somewhere along the entire US coastline (52% is the average chance). The chance for Eastern Florida is 45% (average chance is 31%). From the Gulf coast of Florida to Brownsville, Texas the chance is 44% (30% is the average). For more info, check out the following.

http://hurricane.atmos.colostate.edu/Forecasts/2010/april2010/apr2010.pdf

The Weather Research Center/John C. Freeman Weather Museum is forecasting 8 named storms, 5 of those hurricanes, 3 of those major hurricanes. They are forecasting a 60% chance of a tropical storm or stronger hitting Texas (51% is average chance), 90% for West Florida (71% is average), 70% for eastern Florida (41% average), 40% for Louisiana to Alabama (59% is average), 20% for eastern US (36% average), and 20% Georgia to North Carolina (56% average). Here is the report:

http://wxresearch.org/press/2010huroutlook.pdf

Regardless of which one you regard as most likely, it is time to get your hurricane supply kit together and make sure you have a plan in case a hurricane threatens.

God bless all the men and women who gave their lives for our freedom. God bless their families and friends. And God Bless America.

Cecilia Sinclair
Wonder Weather Woman