First Cold Front Coming!/3 Month Weather Outlooks/Houston Texans Poll

HURRICANES AND WEATHER
Hurricane Igor passed just west of Bermuda late Sunday night as a Category 1 hurricane. Although there has been some damage, it was not nearly as bad as Hurricane Fabian in 2003...the eastern end of this major hurricane with 115 mph winds hit the western part of Bermuda causing major damage. According to the National Hurricane Center, there were 4 fatalities on Bermuda and $300 US of property damage. Prior to Fabian, the worst storm was half a century earlier. From here, Igor will likely move northward and eventually weaken with the remnants bringing rain to Greenland.

Julia is a tropical storm east of Igor which will probably not affect any land areas.

In the far eastern Atlantic, there is an area with an 80% chance of developing (next storm name is Lisa). Most models show it going north...but it is very early. So stay tuned.

I will say that one of the more extended forecast models, shows something developed near Florida in the middle of the coming week (a week from Wednesday). So, I'll be checking that out over the next few days.

In the eastern Pacific, there is a new disturbance brewing which has a good chance of developing and moving northward into the Baja California/western Mexico.

There is a slight risk for severe storms today for Minnesota and Wisconsin. There will be many areas with thunderstorms. Upper 40s today around Cut Bank, Montana while Phoenix should be one of the hottest spots with 100+ readings. 60s for California coast and 50s and 60s for the northern tier of states. Elsewhere, 70s to 90s with southeast and south nice and steamy.

Houston, very warm and muggy into Saturday with scattered showers and thunderstorms each day. First real cold front arrives late Saturday bringing lower humidity and sunshine by Monday (as well as morning lows in the upper 60s). Yay!!!

SPANISH WORD OF THE DAY
Let's do bicycle or bicicleta, pronounced bee-see-CLEH-tah. It can be expensive to ride a bicicleta for a living...find out why in the AND MORE section.

Volume 3 DVD of my award winning education series, Let's Learn Spanish with Frank & Paco, will be released soon. A CD of music from volumes 1 through 3 will be released at the same time. Volume 3 will cover the alphabet (with words beginning with those letters), numbers 1 through 20 and colors. Until it's ready for release, Let's Learn Spanish with Frank & Paco Volumes 1 and 2 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
Poll Results and New Poll
My poll on favorite Dairy Queen Blizzard is closed. 80% of the respondents said they like the kind with candy added the best (my favorite is butterfinger). 20% said they like cookies added the most. No one selected fruit added or chocolate concoction as their favorite. Only only answer was allowed. Thanks to all who participated.

The Texans won their 2nd game of the season on Sunday, 9/19. How far do you think they will go this season. More than one answer is allowed. Thanks in advance for participating.

Fall Official Begins this Wednesday 9/22
According to the U.S. Naval Observatory, fall will officially being this Tuesday, September 22nd at 10:09 pm. This is called the autumnal equinox and it marks the days when the length of day is about equal to the length of night. Happy Autumn!!!

More about Bermuda
Checked Wikipedia and found out that Bermuda is an archipelago made of 138 islands, located about 640 miles east-southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. It is only 20.6 square miles in size (i.e. if it was a square, it would be a little over 4 miles by 4 miles in size). There are 67,837 inhabitants (according to the most recent census). The biggest island is often called Bermuda also.

It is expensive to be a bicycle courier
I was talking to a bicycle courier the other day. He said he averages about 50 miles on the bike daily. He was super fit, and he said he can eat whatever he wants. I asked him how often he has to replace his bike tires, and he said about once every 3000 miles (so about every 3 months). He said that the bike tires are almost as expensive as car tires. So, I went online and checked out bike tire prices. The most expensive I saw was $74 but there were some more casual models for only about $10. I figure he is probably not using the latter.

Oct/Nov/Dec Temperature/Precipitation Outlooks
The latest 3 months outlooks for October through December from the Climate Prediction Center indicate cooler than normal conditions for coastal California but warmer than normal for the southwest and south. See figure at right.

For precipitation, the outlook is drier than normal weather for the southwest and south and wetter than normal for the Pacific Northwest. See figure at right.

Drought Monitor and Outlook
Northern Louisiana, northeast West Virginia and western Hawaii are hardest hit by drought. Forecast is for persistence in drought for most of these locations and development of drought in western Arkansas. See figures at right.

Hang in there everyone...the cooler weather is almost here.

Cecilia Sinclair
Wonder Weather Woman