Tuesday, August 2, 2011

The mess that is Emily

National Hurricane Center meteorologists are earning their pay, trying to make sense of Tropical Storm Emily.

Let's review what's happened so far:

-- The tropical wave failed to develop into a tropical storm when predicted. Low-level and mid-level circulation centers wouldn't line up properly, so the system kept spinning blobs of thunderstorms in a elliptical path.

-- Finally, on Monday evening, the National Hurricane Center's jet found enough of a center to give the system a name (Emily).

-- Late Tuesday morning, Emily came to a standstill. Some meteorologists think it might be reforming its center, south of where it previously was.

Sometime later Wednesday, Tropical Storm Emily will cross Hispaniola, and it certainly seems as if the system will have a very tough time surviving that trip across the rugged mountainous terrain. By Thursday, we might be looking at a mere tropical wave again, bringing showers and thunderstorms later this week to Cuba or the southern Bahamas.

This is only the first real formed-in-the-Atlantic tropical system of the season, and odds are there will be several more to go.

Emily looks like one of those storms that gives hurricane forecasting a bad name.

More later today.

Texas heat: I noticed that today will be the 32nd consecutive 100-degree day in Dallas. The forecast high today is 108. That's simply not right. And remember -- that's a place where snow fell last winter during Super Bowl week.

This is the second-longest streak of 100-degree days in Dallas history, and it's another sign of how truly hot the summer of 2011 has been for Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, western Tennessee and other parts of the Midwest and South.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Regarding the heat, and the article you wrote, commenting here because it appears I have been banned from commenting on articles but I'm free to comment on blogs...

You noted that we have had 90-plus days in all but 6 days since June 26. There appears to be a substantial difference from the temps you guys at the O report and what is reported on weather.com. According to that site, we had 10 such days in May, 24 in June and 28 in July. It would appear from that data that we have a decent shot at 100 days of 90 or higher temps, and that we should easily break the record of 88 such days.

I'd like to see some data on average dewpoints and what the record is here for days of 70 or higher dewpoints. That's a better indicator of how miserable the weather can be. If we went through a whole summer where we had 80 days where the high was 88 or 89, we'd be reading about how cold the summer was. But if the dewpoint was 68-72 every day, you would see a whole bunch of miserable people walking around...

Anonymous said...

I greatly fear the possibility that even October will not be bringing much relief. Maybe not 90's but highs in the 80's, which just ain't right.

Anonymous said...

Grab your supplies and head to your shelters!! Global warming armageddon is finally here!!!