Hot and Sticky/Hurricane Celia/Houston-Galveston Hurricane Workshop

HURRICANES AND WEATHER
Things really getting busy in the Pacific with Hurricane Celia in the eastern Pacific...no threat to land but expected to be a major hurricane (Category 3) on Tuesday. What is left of tropical depression Blas will continue to weaken as it moves westward and there is new area of disturbed weather just west of Acapulco.

In the Atlantic basin, 2 areas of disturbed weather...one threatening heavy rain for Haiti (and already brought heavy rain to Puerto Rico) with almost no chance of developing over the next couple of days as it moves westward and another near the southern Windward Islands. Hi Mollie and Kevin in Trinidad...are you getting wet? That one has less than a 10% chance of developing according to the National Hurricane Center. Long range models show something trying to get organized in the central Gulf next weekend...so stay tuned.

On Monday, very hot and steamy for the southern and eastern US. Pleasant for the west coast and northern Rockies with highs in the 60s up to low 80s. Some severe weather Midwest into the Great Lakes.

Houston, this is the drill and it hurts...hot and humid all week. Maybe a few sea breeze afternoon storms late in the week...no big changes on the horizon.

SPANISH WORD OF THE DAY
Let's do oil or petróleo, pronounced peh-TROH-lay-oh. I found out that people are worried about hurricane season and the petróleo spill. Find out how I learned that in the AND MORE section.

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AND MORE
The Houston/Galveston Hurricane Workshop was well attended on Saturday June 19th. It was held in the George R. Brown Convention Center and as you know the building is blocks long. Well, I accidentally walked into the Gun Show and was immediately asked if I would like to sign up for NRA membership. Well, I finally got to the right place and enjoyed working with many of the on air meteorologists in the Houston market. There were two sessions where they fielded questions from an audience and I was the moderator. There was a slightly different mix of on air meteorologists during the 2 sessions due to schedules and autograph signings.

The oil spill was very much on the minds of folks in both sessions. They wanted to know if a hurricane could move the oil toward the Texas coast. Generally, the panel answered that yes it could happen but that depending on the storm, a hurricane might actually help mix the oil out over a larger area. On the down side, oil might be pushed into our estuaries and riverways. One thing that was clarified is that you should not worry about the spill causing oil rain or acid rain.

I remember the oil spell from the Bay of Campeche Explosion in 1979. South Padre Island beaches got dirty and it was a nuisance but generally speaking, we just cleaned the oil off our feet and shoes. Eventually, a storm named Frederick helped disperse the oil. So, looking back on that, maybe a hurricane would be helpful.

I went to Bill Read's talk. He is the head of the National Hurricane Center. He pointed out that for every 4 evacuations you are asked to make, only 1 will be for an actual catastrophic hit. The point was if you have evacuated 2 or 3 times and nothing happened, don't ignore additional evacuations, because that might be the one you really need to make.

Happy Father's Day to all you dads.

Cecilia Sinclair
Wonder Weather Woman