July 2017 - TS Emily West of Tampa

General Weather Discussions and Analysis
User avatar
DoctorMu
Posts: 5648
Joined: Sun Jun 28, 2015 11:58 am
Location: College Station
Contact:

102°F real temp in College Station today, after a couple of 100°F days. Looking forward to a change, even the modest one ahead with a chance of precip this weekend and in the middle of the week....in August we take it!
User avatar
MontgomeryCoWx
Posts: 2356
Joined: Wed Dec 14, 2011 4:31 pm
Location: Weimar, TX
Contact:

Hopefully it's a cool September for some tailgatin' in CS!
Team #NeverSummer
User avatar
srainhoutx
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 19611
Joined: Tue Feb 02, 2010 2:32 pm
Location: Maggie Valley, NC
Contact:

Stay hydrated out there today. It's looking like the hottest day we've seen so far this Summer Season unless the Cirrus Clouds associated with the showers and Storms to our N and E along and ahead of that "cold front" arrive earlier than anticipated.
07292017 13Z TX VIS latest.jpg
URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE
National Weather Service Houston/Galveston TX
459 AM CDT Sat Jul 29 2017

...Heat Advisory in Effect...

.The combination of hot temperatures and high humidity will
create a situation in which heat illnesses are possible if
precautions are not taken.

Austin-Brazoria-Brazos-Burleson-Chambers-Colorado-Fort Bend-
Galveston-Harris-Jackson-Matagorda-Waller-Washington-Wharton-
Including the cities of Alvin, Anahuac, Angleton, Bay City,
Bellville, Brenham, Brookshire, Bryan, Caldwell, College Station,
Columbus, Eagle Lake, Edna, El Campo, Freeport, Friendswood,
Galveston, Hempstead, Houston, Humble, Katy, Lake Jackson,
Lake Somerville, League City, Missouri City, Mont Belvieu,
Palacios, Pasadena, Pearland, Pierce, Prairie View, Richmond,
Rosenberg, Sealy, Sugar Land, Texas City, Tomball, Weimar,
Wharton, and Winnie
459 AM CDT Sat Jul 29 2017

...HEAT ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 1 PM THIS AFTERNOON TO 7 PM CDT
THIS EVENING...


The National Weather Service in Houston/Galveston has issued a
Heat Advisory, which is in effect from 1 PM this afternoon to
7 PM CDT this evening.

* EVENT...High temperatures near 103 degrees in the Brazos Valley.
Heat index values 107 to 110 degrees across the all of the
advisory area.

* TIMING...This afternoon into early evening.

* IMPACT...Prolonged exposure to the heat and/or exertion
outdoors without proper hydration and other precautionary
actions may result in heat exhaustion or heat stroke.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside. When
possible...reschedule strenuous activities to early morning or
evening. Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat
stroke. Wear light weight and loose fitting clothing when
possible and drink plenty of water.

To reduce risk during outdoor work...the occupational safety and
health administration recommends scheduling frequent rest breaks
in shaded or air conditioned environments. Anyone overcome by
heat should be moved to a cool and shaded location. Heat stroke
is an emergency - call 911.

Each year...a number of fatalities occur nationwide due to
children accidentally being left in vehicles during the summer
months. In the past dozen years...500 children have died due to
hyperthermia after being left in or gaining access to cars. Never
leave children or pets unattended in a vehicle not even for a
minute. Remember...beat the heat...check the backseat.
Carla/Alicia/Jerry(In The Eye)/Michelle/Charley/Ivan/Dennis/Katrina/Rita/Wilma/Humberto/Ike/Harvey

Member: National Weather Association
Facebook.com/Weather Infinity
Twitter @WeatherInfinity
User avatar
srainhoutx
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 19611
Joined: Tue Feb 02, 2010 2:32 pm
Location: Maggie Valley, NC
Contact:

This day in SE Texas Weather History that changed Hurricane Forecasting and Reconnaissance forever as reported by Jim Bell of the University of Houston (Houston Public Media) in his interview with our own Lew Fincher:

Most people on the Gulf coast know something about the destructive hurricanes that have hit this area over the years, but there’s one major storm almost no one knows anything about. Today, in his introduction to our series on getting ready for hurricane season, Houston Public Radio’s Jim Bell visits the Exxon-Mobil Refinery in Baytown, one of the victims of the “surprise” hurricane of 1943.

Hurricane Resource Page

1943 Hurricane in Galveston It's called the “surprise” hurricane because it hit Houston by surprise. Nobody knew it was coming. The government knew, but there was a war on in 1943 and a number of Houston companies were major suppliers of munitions, war material and fuel. The War Department didn’t want the enemy to know a storm was coming, and afterwards that some companies had storm damage, so, all information about the storm’s approach, landfall and aftermath was censored. What records there are say only that it was a minor storm that did minor damage, but hurricane preparedness consultant Lew Fincher says that’s far from true. It was in fact the worst hurricane to hit this area since 1915.

“At the Humble Oil refinery which, you know we’re in front of Exxon right now, over here in Baytown, they recorded winds up as high as 132 miles an hour. Ellington Field, they had recordings there of over 130 miles an hour. And also at the Municipal Airport, which is now over there by Hobby Field, the same wind measurements.”

Fincher says at the very least it was a category two storm, but more probably a category three. To understand why the War Department was so concerned about secrecy, Fincher says it’s important to know what the Humble Oil refinery in Baytown and some other companies in the area were contributing to the war effort.

“This storm halted the production of high grade aviation fuel for the Allied war effort. The Humble Oil refinery and the Shell Deer Park refinery were the two top producers of high grade aviation fuel for the military. They were also the two biggest producers of one of the main ingredients for TNT for the bombs.”

Shipyards in Galveston and Beaumont-Port Arthur were launching Liberty Ships as fast as they could build them, to carry supplies to the war fronts, but many of the ships were sunk by German U-Boats waiting for them in the Gulf of Mexico. Fincher is writing a book about the ’43 storm, and he says the fear of an enemy attack on the U.S. mainland was so real that refineries and chemical plants were protected by batteries of anti-aircraft guns.

“Oh there sure were. Some of the people I interviewed told me about, there was uh, one of them lived very close to the refinery, he said right out his bedroom door, was literally an anti-aircraft facility, right there, right outside his window.”

1943 Hurricane. The hurricane killed 19 people and left $19 million in damages, in 1943 dollars, but not a word of those deaths or damages made it into news reports. Radio stations couldn’t report anything about it because U-boats were listening to them out in the gulf. Fincher says the totality of the news blackout was amazing enough, but the way people in the Houston area accepted it and went along with it was even more amazing.

“And you gotta give it to the people that lived here in the greater Houston and Galveston area, about keeping quiet about it, and not letting that secret out. In times like that people knew, that was their loved ones out there by the millions, by the millions of people. They needed to shut that information down.”

Bill Read of the National Weather Service is helping Fincher with his book, and he has access to government archives and sources, and even Read is amazed at how little official information there is about the storm.

“Yeah I was hoping we would find somewhere there would be an archive of the weather records from that time, but again, being World War Two all that stuff was subject to censorship. So I believe what was the policy back then, best I can figure out is they boxed that stuff off, labeled it top secret and shipped it off the Department of War. There’s nothing new to be found that I’ve been able to locate.”

Three important things happened more or less as a direct result of the 1943 hurricane. Germany pulled its U-boats out of the Gulf of Mexico in the summer of that year, and it may have been in part because they didn’t want to lose any subs to a hurricane. And the War Department never again tried to censor weather information, because it was felt that secrecy may have been to blame for the death toll in the Houston area.

University of Houston Communications Professor Garth Jowett says that’s just as well, because there’s just no way the government could stop the flow of news and information that way in today’s high tech world.

“The world has essentially changed. You can’t put that horse back into the barn. And I’ve said before on occasions, what happens with new technologies is that the means to control them is usually several years, if not sometimes decades behind the emergency of the technology. You just can’t hide this kind of information with CNN and with Fox and other satellite networks. The fact that there’s a big storm coming down on Galveston is not something that anybody can hide.”

The 1943 storm was also historic because it inspired the use of airplanes for hurricane reconnaissance. Lew Fincher says an Army Air Corps flight instructor at Bryan Field near Texas A&M, Colonel Joe Duckworth, flew an AT-6 Trainer into the storm to prove how tough the plane was, for the benefit of some English RAF pilots who were skeptical of the plane’s air worthiness.

“What happened was they got back to Bryan Field, the weather officer he comes running out and goes ‘hey, why didn’t you take me?’ And the weather officer got in, it was a two-seater single engine, and they flew back in and took some measurements of the storm, went back into the eye again.”

Joe Duckworth proved it could be done, and the following year, in 1944, the first Hurricane Hunter Squadron was created, led by Duckworth, and it’s been flying into hurricanes ever since.
Attachments
07292017 HGX 1943 Surprise Hurricane DF6GSO9WAAATvPa.jpg
Carla/Alicia/Jerry(In The Eye)/Michelle/Charley/Ivan/Dennis/Katrina/Rita/Wilma/Humberto/Ike/Harvey

Member: National Weather Association
Facebook.com/Weather Infinity
Twitter @WeatherInfinity
User avatar
DoctorMu
Posts: 5648
Joined: Sun Jun 28, 2015 11:58 am
Location: College Station
Contact:

MontgomeryCoWx wrote:Hopefully it's a cool September for some tailgatin' in CS!
Just hangin' on until football season:



Area Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Houston/Galveston TX
1245 PM CDT Sat Jul 29 2017

.AVIATION...
VFR conditions through the TAF period across most of the terminals
tonight. With daytime heating and lift provided from the
prefrontal trough, could see isolated shower and thunderstorm
coverage this evening between 00-03Z near CXO, IAH, and HOU. As
the weak frontal passage sags southward, VCSH will be possible
across all sites between 06-12Z moving in from the NE and making
it to the coast by early morning. Short term guidance keeps the
chance for isolated to scattered showers and thunderstorms
lingering through mid morning tomorrow. Gusty winds associated
with stronger storms will also be possible as the front moves
through the region. Expecting cloud cover to thicken enough to
allow for an MVFR deck in the early morning hours along the coast
at LBX and GLS, rising to VFR by late morning/early afternoon.

Hathaway

&&

.PREV DISCUSSION... /ISSUED 1012 AM CDT Sat Jul 29 2017/

UPDATE...
West to southwest winds ahead of a weak cold front stretching from
the Red River into central MS/AL and mostly sunny skies had
allowed 10 AM CDT temperatures to rise into the mid to upper 80s
across most of Southeast Texas. Mid and high clouds associated
with convection along the aforementioned frontal boundary were
keeping temperatures a few degrees lower than the remainder of the
area and the main update for the forecast this morning was to
update temperatures for these hourly trends. Have made no changes
to the ongoing heat advisory as have concerns that this cloud
cover will keep heat index values below criteria over the
northeast as 700-300 MB relative humidity fields show clouds
persisting into the afternoon. That`s not to say today won`t be
hot across the area with afternoon highs climbing roughly into
the 95 to 103 range.

With SPC mesoanalysis showing 850 and 700 MB front oriented
roughly parallel to the cold front, expect the front to not make
it into the area until later this afternoon/evening and have
tweaked PoPs downward as a result. Still cannot rule out an
isolated shower or thunderstorm during the afternoon and evening
hours north and northeast of the Houston metro however as the
frontal boundary or its associated prefrontal trough (located
from West Texas into Central Texas) trudges into the region.
Should a thunderstorm develop as this happens, it could be strong
and capable of gusty winds (forecast soundings out of College
Station and Lufkin show dry profiles below 700 MB). This would be
the exception and not the rule, however, with most of the region
not expected to see rain during the day today.
User avatar
DoctorMu
Posts: 5648
Joined: Sun Jun 28, 2015 11:58 am
Location: College Station
Contact:

Real temp = 105°F

Heat index = 111°F


C'mon cold/cooler/less torrid front!!
User avatar
djmike
Posts: 1702
Joined: Fri Jan 07, 2011 12:19 pm
Location: BEAUMONT, TX
Contact:

Well I think the cold front "moisture" was a dud! 50-60% was forecasted for beaumont with a line of storms between 6-8pm. Has been absolutely nothing on radar all day and still nothing. Back to the sprinklers for me. Still holding little hope for you guys further south in Houston. We shall see...
Mike
Beaumont, TX
(IH-10 & College Street)
texoz
Posts: 291
Joined: Tue Mar 02, 2010 8:01 am
Contact:

srainhoutx wrote:This day in SE Texas Weather History that changed Hurricane Forecasting and Reconnaissance forever as reported by Jim Bell of the University of Houston (Houston Public Media) in his interview with our own Lew Fincher:

Most people on the Gulf coast know something about the destructive hurricanes that have hit this area over the years, but there’s one major storm almost no one knows anything about. Today, in his introduction to our series on getting ready for hurricane season, Houston Public Radio’s Jim Bell visits the Exxon-Mobil Refinery in Baytown, one of the victims of the “surprise” hurricane of 1943.

Hurricane Resource Page

1943 Hurricane in Galveston It's called the “surprise” hurricane because it hit Houston by surprise. Nobody knew it was coming. The government knew, but there was a war on in 1943 and a number of Houston companies were major suppliers of munitions, war material and fuel. The War Department didn’t want the enemy to know a storm was coming, and afterwards that some companies had storm damage, so, all information about the storm’s approach, landfall and aftermath was censored. What records there are say only that it was a minor storm that did minor damage, but hurricane preparedness consultant Lew Fincher says that’s far from true. It was in fact the worst hurricane to hit this area since 1915.

“At the Humble Oil refinery which, you know we’re in front of Exxon right now, over here in Baytown, they recorded winds up as high as 132 miles an hour. Ellington Field, they had recordings there of over 130 miles an hour. And also at the Municipal Airport, which is now over there by Hobby Field, the same wind measurements.”

Fincher says at the very least it was a category two storm, but more probably a category three. To understand why the War Department was so concerned about secrecy, Fincher says it’s important to know what the Humble Oil refinery in Baytown and some other companies in the area were contributing to the war effort.

“This storm halted the production of high grade aviation fuel for the Allied war effort. The Humble Oil refinery and the Shell Deer Park refinery were the two top producers of high grade aviation fuel for the military. They were also the two biggest producers of one of the main ingredients for TNT for the bombs.”

Shipyards in Galveston and Beaumont-Port Arthur were launching Liberty Ships as fast as they could build them, to carry supplies to the war fronts, but many of the ships were sunk by German U-Boats waiting for them in the Gulf of Mexico. Fincher is writing a book about the ’43 storm, and he says the fear of an enemy attack on the U.S. mainland was so real that refineries and chemical plants were protected by batteries of anti-aircraft guns.

“Oh there sure were. Some of the people I interviewed told me about, there was uh, one of them lived very close to the refinery, he said right out his bedroom door, was literally an anti-aircraft facility, right there, right outside his window.”

1943 Hurricane. The hurricane killed 19 people and left $19 million in damages, in 1943 dollars, but not a word of those deaths or damages made it into news reports. Radio stations couldn’t report anything about it because U-boats were listening to them out in the gulf. Fincher says the totality of the news blackout was amazing enough, but the way people in the Houston area accepted it and went along with it was even more amazing.

“And you gotta give it to the people that lived here in the greater Houston and Galveston area, about keeping quiet about it, and not letting that secret out. In times like that people knew, that was their loved ones out there by the millions, by the millions of people. They needed to shut that information down.”

Bill Read of the National Weather Service is helping Fincher with his book, and he has access to government archives and sources, and even Read is amazed at how little official information there is about the storm.

“Yeah I was hoping we would find somewhere there would be an archive of the weather records from that time, but again, being World War Two all that stuff was subject to censorship. So I believe what was the policy back then, best I can figure out is they boxed that stuff off, labeled it top secret and shipped it off the Department of War. There’s nothing new to be found that I’ve been able to locate.”

Three important things happened more or less as a direct result of the 1943 hurricane. Germany pulled its U-boats out of the Gulf of Mexico in the summer of that year, and it may have been in part because they didn’t want to lose any subs to a hurricane. And the War Department never again tried to censor weather information, because it was felt that secrecy may have been to blame for the death toll in the Houston area.

University of Houston Communications Professor Garth Jowett says that’s just as well, because there’s just no way the government could stop the flow of news and information that way in today’s high tech world.

“The world has essentially changed. You can’t put that horse back into the barn. And I’ve said before on occasions, what happens with new technologies is that the means to control them is usually several years, if not sometimes decades behind the emergency of the technology. You just can’t hide this kind of information with CNN and with Fox and other satellite networks. The fact that there’s a big storm coming down on Galveston is not something that anybody can hide.”

The 1943 storm was also historic because it inspired the use of airplanes for hurricane reconnaissance. Lew Fincher says an Army Air Corps flight instructor at Bryan Field near Texas A&M, Colonel Joe Duckworth, flew an AT-6 Trainer into the storm to prove how tough the plane was, for the benefit of some English RAF pilots who were skeptical of the plane’s air worthiness.

“What happened was they got back to Bryan Field, the weather officer he comes running out and goes ‘hey, why didn’t you take me?’ And the weather officer got in, it was a two-seater single engine, and they flew back in and took some measurements of the storm, went back into the eye again.”

Joe Duckworth proved it could be done, and the following year, in 1944, the first Hurricane Hunter Squadron was created, led by Duckworth, and it’s been flying into hurricanes ever since.
Great story. thanks for posting.
User avatar
DoctorMu
Posts: 5648
Joined: Sun Jun 28, 2015 11:58 am
Location: College Station
Contact:

A line of storms from Huntsville to Liberty appears.
Electric Lizard
Posts: 53
Joined: Sat May 24, 2014 7:37 am
Contact:

DoctorMu wrote:A line of storms from Huntsville to Liberty appears.
Unfortunately, it sure doesn't look like it'll reach as far west as the Brazos.
mckinne63
Posts: 553
Joined: Fri Jul 08, 2011 4:50 pm
Location: Stafford, TX
Contact:

DoctorMu wrote:
MontgomeryCoWx wrote:Hopefully it's a cool September for some tailgatin' in CS!
Just hangin' on until football season:

Me too! Go Pack Go and Go Texans!
User avatar
DoctorMu
Posts: 5648
Joined: Sun Jun 28, 2015 11:58 am
Location: College Station
Contact:

Electric Lizard wrote:
DoctorMu wrote:A line of storms from Huntsville to Liberty appears.
Unfortunately, it sure doesn't look like it'll reach as far west as the Brazos.

ENE winds this morning, but very disappointed at the lack of lower DPs so far. Lufkin has a DP of 63°F. We're at a wet bulb of 75°F. Huntsville at 70°F. So the gradient is there. No rain either. grrrrrrrrrr
User avatar
DoctorMu
Posts: 5648
Joined: Sun Jun 28, 2015 11:58 am
Location: College Station
Contact:

Drier air is slowly filtering in with NE advection. Dew points have dropped into the mid-60s in Huntsville and below 60°F towards Marshall and Texarkana.


Image
mckinne63
Posts: 553
Joined: Fri Jul 08, 2011 4:50 pm
Location: Stafford, TX
Contact:

DoctorMu wrote:
Electric Lizard wrote:
DoctorMu wrote:A line of storms from Huntsville to Liberty appears.
Unfortunately, it sure doesn't look like it'll reach as far west as the Brazos.

ENE winds this morning, but very disappointed at the lack of lower DPs so far. Lufkin has a DP of 63°F. We're at a wet bulb of 75°F. Huntsville at 70°F. So the gradient is there. No rain either. grrrrrrrrrr
Not a drop here either and is still just plain hot, hot, hot! I thought it was supposed to be a bit cooler? It is summer in Texas so not expecting much, but thought humidity was supposed to go down. Just came in from outside, feel like I took a shower. :P
User avatar
Texaspirate11
Posts: 1278
Joined: Tue Dec 31, 2013 12:24 am
Contact:

Sunday night is sooooooooo delightful - the only thing missing is a good football game!
Feels wonderful with the "cool" wind and low humidity by the bay!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just because you're disabled, you don't have to be a victim
Be Weather Aware & Prepared!
Barbara Jordan Winner in Media
Disability Integration Consultant
User avatar
srainhoutx
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 19611
Joined: Tue Feb 02, 2010 2:32 pm
Location: Maggie Valley, NC
Contact:

Tropical Storm Emily Special Discussion Number 2
NWS National Hurricane Center Miami FL AL062017
800 AM EDT Mon Jul 31 2017

This Special Advisory is to upgrade the depression to Tropical
Storm Emily, now located just west of Tampa Bay, Florida. A Tropical
Storm Warning has also been issued for a portion of the west-
central coast of Florida.

Doppler velocity data from the NWS Tampa Bay WSR-88D radar indicate
average velocities of 48-50 kt on the south side of the circulation
center between 4500-6500 ft altitude during the past hour. Using a
standard adjustment factor of 80 percent yields an equivalent
surface wind of about 40 kt. Therefore, the depression has been
upgraded to Tropical Storm Emily. Little change in strength is
expected until landfall occurs this afternoon, followed by slow
weakening as Emily moves across the Florida peninsula tonight.

The initial motion estimate is 095/07 kt. There is no change to the
previous forecast track or reasoning. Emily is expected to make
landfall along the west-central Florida coast within the warning
area by late afternoon, and then continue eastward across the
central Florida peninsula tonight, emerging off of the east-central
Florida coast Tuesday morning.

The primary threat with this system is expected to be locally heavy
rainfall across portions of the Florida peninsula during the next
couple of days. However, an isolated waterspout will also be
possible in the coastal waters within the warning area.

This special advisory is being issued in lieu of the standard
Intermediate Public advisory.

FORECAST POSITIONS AND MAX WINDS

INIT 31/1200Z 27.7N 83.2W 40 KT 45 MPH
12H 31/1800Z 27.7N 82.4W 40 KT 45 MPH
24H 01/0600Z 28.3N 80.6W 30 KT 35 MPH
36H 01/1800Z 29.8N 78.6W 35 KT 40 MPH
48H 02/0600Z 31.6N 76.5W 35 KT 40 MPH
72H 03/0600Z 34.5N 72.0W 35 KT 40 MPH
96H 04/0600Z...DISSIPATED

$$
Forecaster Stewart

Attachments
07312017 TS Emily 800 AM EDT 120350_5day_cone_no_line_and_wind.png
Carla/Alicia/Jerry(In The Eye)/Michelle/Charley/Ivan/Dennis/Katrina/Rita/Wilma/Humberto/Ike/Harvey

Member: National Weather Association
Facebook.com/Weather Infinity
Twitter @WeatherInfinity
BlueJay
Posts: 938
Joined: Tue Mar 04, 2014 10:47 am
Location: Alden Bridge-The Woodlands, Texas
Contact:

The last morning in July 2017 was a lovely cool 71F for us which made our a.m. walk easy breezy. Now, if we just could get a bit of rain...
unome
Posts: 3059
Joined: Fri Feb 12, 2010 6:11 pm

browsing Eric Blake's Twitter feed, found this crazy good CIRA experimental GOES-16 link

http://rammb-slider.cira.colostate.edu

how far we have come !
User avatar
DoctorMu
Posts: 5648
Joined: Sun Jun 28, 2015 11:58 am
Location: College Station
Contact:

BlueJay wrote:The last morning in July 2017 was a lovely cool 71F for us which made our a.m. walk easy breezy. Now, if we just could get a bit of rain...
Fingers crossed the forecasts hold.


Haha 95°F with a NE breeze and DP of 60°F now feels frigid after a brutal Saturday!
User avatar
DoctorMu
Posts: 5648
Joined: Sun Jun 28, 2015 11:58 am
Location: College Station
Contact:

unome wrote:browsing Eric Blake's Twitter feed, found this crazy good CIRA experimental GOES-16 link

http://rammb-slider.cira.colostate.edu

how far we have come !

Oh, wow!
Post Reply
  • Information