Museum District Day!

Another year, another Museum District Day has come and gone. You would think that with the persistent rain and clouds, there would have been a low turn out. Not so much. After a year hiatus due to Hurricane Ike, the event enjoyed its strongest turnout ever!! Total visitors for the day eclipsed 65,500, besting 2007's numbers by over 3000 people! Outstanding!

Museums with the largest turn out continue to be The Museum of Fine Arts and The Museum of Natural Science with the Children's Museum right behind them. Numbers for The Weather Museum were right on par with last year, which works our great as we're definitely filled to capacity on numerous occasions. We even heard a few stories on how a visitor's daughter had to be pulled out of the museum because she enjoyed it so much and a few people stayed for hours viewing our exhibits and Ike video. We also had a couple Ike influenced pieces of art generously donated by artists at the Caroline Collective located just down the street from us.

This was my first Museum District Day and I had an absolute blast helping out all the visitors. Here's hoping next year is even bigger and better!!

Onto the tropics...

This time yesterday, there looked like nothing was going on in the Atlantic. This morning is a completely different story. We're watching both the remnant low of hurricane Fred and a broad area of low pressure about 700 miles west of the Cape Verde Islands. Thunderstorm activity near that low looked much more impressive a few hours ago, but has since died down somewhat as stronger shear has begun to impact the system. The remnants of Fred have been producing intermittent showers and thunderstorms as it slowly moves west from where it first diminished. Models have started picking up again on this system and could begin to influence weather in the Gulf within the next 5 or so days...if it makes it. Presently, thunderstorm activity remain limited, though a fresh crop of showers have sprung up near the southern end of the circulation. This remains something we should all keep an eye on in the coming days.

As for Houston, who doesn't like this cut off upper level low over northern Louisiana? Since the rain cleared out this past weekend, we've been in a steady west to northwest flow, keeping us a little less humid and a whole lot less hot. I'm sure anyone in Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi would say otherwise as rain has been falling in buckets for the past few days in that region.

We'll probably;y have a slight uptick in heat and humidity over the weekend and into early next week as the low moves out and southerly flow return to SE Texas. Buuuuuut, this may not last for long as models have been keying in on a cold front (!!!!) to move through the area Wednesday, with actual north winds behind it.

Thats all I have for today. Hope you all have a good weekend!!

Tropical Storm Fred/MDD/Gulf of Mexico

Tropical Depression 7 rapidly strengthened into Fred late last night and conditions remain favorable over the next 36 hours for it to become only our second hurricane of the year. After wards, though, it's not looking to good for our little system. A upper level trough (now north of Fred) will start to bring some strong shear to the storm. This, combined with a northerly track that puts it in some much cooler waters, will begin to weaken Fred, bringing back to Tropical Storm status by Friday. For the most part, models keep the system on a north to northwest track over the next few days, but by the end of the week, high pressure could develop north of the storm and either halt movement or dramatically slow it down, while steering it on a more west to northwest track. At this time, Fred is of no threat to Houston or the Gulf.

We've also got another watch area over on the east coast, near the outer banks. It's basically just a weak area of low pressure that continues to produce a good deal of wind and rain. Still, it's something to keep an eye on, though not much development is expected, if any, as that shear remains just a bit too strong for any real organization.

What about the Gulf? All we've had so far is Claudette and unless you lived east of New Orleans, you didn't get a drop of rain from it. Models have been pretty shaky of late, but a few are hinting at the development of an area of low pressure in the western Gulf, anywhere from coastal Louisiana to southern Texas. Could we get another short lived storm in the Gulf? Will the low even form? Are we even going to get any substantial rainfall? We could go either way on all of those. In any case, it'll be a good idea to watch the area.

Museum District Day 2009 is fast approaching (Saturday!!) and we are in need of some volunteers. We can easily expect about 2000 people to move through the museum (ours alone) and we just don't have the staff to watch everyone. We're fortunate enough to have a few extras coming, but we need more, probably about 5 to 10 more people. If you've got nothing to do Saturday, come on down to the weather museum and help us out. Food and drinks will be available. Contact Benjamin Maloney at 713-529-3076 or wrc@wxresearch.org for more info. Hope to see you here!