July 2018: Weekend/Early Next Week Rain Chances

[Ptarmigan]

A wet start to July.

[jasons2k]

After Wednesday it looks like the spigot will be turned off for two weeks (possibly longer) as the ridge weakens again and impulses move westerly underneath. Nothing in the tropical horizon at this time for the western Gulf.

Enjoy the cloudy, cooler, showery weather while it lasts!

That's my concern. I was hoping for one last good soaking before the doldrums and late summer depression sets in. I managed to get .21" today, better than nothing, but I was really hoping for (and expected) a 1 or a 2 before that decimal over the last couple of days.

[Katdaddy]

A 40% chance of scattered showers and a few thunderstorms with isolated locally heavy rainfall today. Mostly sunny skies with a 20-30% chance of an isolated afternoon shower or thunderstorm through the weekend across SE TX.

[jasons2k]

Here's something random because I don't see this every day. Riding along the east belt and then I-10 east this morning, you can see cumulus clouds (the only ones in the sky this early) forming out of the smokestacks from the chemical plants all along the ship channel. Quite a fascinating sight to see, but it does make my mind wander.....like....would you really want any rain from those clouds dropping God-knows-what on your car? The air in this part of town is noticeably smoggier/hazy too.

[djmike]

Question. Where will the remnants of Beryl go? Gulf? East coast? Or fizzle all together?

[tireman4]

July 10 2018 Forecast

[CrashTestDummy]

Here's something random because I don't see this every day. Riding along the east belt and then I-10 east this morning, you can see cumulus clouds (the only ones in the sky this early) forming out of the smokestacks from the chemical plants all along the ship channel. Quite a fascinating sight to see, but it does make my mind wander.....like....would you really want any rain from those clouds dropping God-knows-what on your car? The air in this part of town is noticeably smoggier/hazy too.

When my Dad retired from the AF we moved here so he could start his next career as a corporate pilot. We moved into a place just outside the Houston City limits, in southeast Harris County. A fellow pilot, working with my Dad, also moved his family in a nearby neighborhood not long after we got there. He noted that they used to live in Pasadena, and one spring, when he pulled the screens off his windows to clean, and hit them with the water, watching the screens dissolve into the spray, he made his mind up to get his family out of that environment.

So yeah, while it's probably been cleaned up some, it's still pretty rank.

[Waded]

Here's something random because I don't see this every day. Riding along the east belt and then I-10 east this morning, you can see cumulus clouds (the only ones in the sky this early) forming out of the smokestacks from the chemical plants all along the ship channel. Quite a fascinating sight to see, but it does make my mind wander.....like....would you really want any rain from those clouds dropping God-knows-what on your car? The air in this part of town is noticeably smoggier/hazy too.

The "smoke stacks" you see are called cooling towers, and the "smoke" from them is water vapor. Hence the reason you sometimes see clouds forming from them. The real "smoke stacks" are called flares (the little towers with fire on top) and it is extremely rare to actually see smoke coming from a flare - it means the flare isn't burning the excess/out of spec product cleanly, and is an indication something is very wrong at the plant and some very big fines are coming.

Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't want to live near a plant (see Arkema) and I don't claim that plants don't have uncontrolled emissions of various chemicals from time to time (they do, and it often makes the news when they do) or, Pasadena doesn't have a problem with foul odors due to all the plants along SH 225. However, it is nothing to the degree your post implies. They don't have smoke stacks releasing raw unfiltered smoke into the environment.

[jasons2k]

I know they are not true “smoke stacks”. That’s just me typing in a pinch while riding as a passenger on the road.

But there’s a lot more getting released than we hear about. I used to commute into town on the East Freeway, I-10, and by Mercury drive it smelled like a combination of bleach and vinegar every morning. When we have air quality alerts in summer and if we drive down to Galveston, when we near Clear Lake, the air turns into a thick, gray-blue smog. Then it clears up again upwind after about 646. That’s not just steam...it’s a lot more than that. Just look at the cancer rates near the refineries...a big chunk of Louisiana is called “cancer alley” for a reason and it’s not the water vapor causing it...

[tireman4]

Tim Heller Retiring.......

[jasons2k]

Tim Heller Retiring.......

I saw that. I always wondered why he left the DFW market - perhaps it was a bit too competitive with aces like David and Troy. I wonder if this was voluntary or due to budgets and the station trying to save money. We’ll probably never know but the skeptic in me bets he wasn’t planning to retire any time soon until he was called into the office for a little talk...

[Katdaddy]

Some locally heavy rain will be possible with scattered thunderstorms this afternoon across SE TX.

[tireman4]

Update from Jeff

[Ounce]

Tim Heller Retiring.......

I saw that. I always wondered why he left the DFW market - perhaps it was a bit too competitive with aces like David and Troy. I wonder if this was voluntary or due to budgets and the station trying to save money. We’ll probably never know but the skeptic in me bets he wasn’t planning to retire any time soon until he was called into the office for a little talk...

Wasn't it his wife that had the medical issue, then he ended up with one, as well?

In an interview of Frank Billingsley by Ken Hoffmann that I read this week, Frank said that he and Tim were up for the same Chief job at KDFW and that they were offering more money than KPRC was, but he decided to stay in Houston and Tim took the KDFW job.

Would it be accurate that among meteorologists that constant 'hot 'n humid' forecasts can get old?

It'll be interesting to see who gets that spot. We have a bumper crop of qualified TV mets here, but I'm not sure if the network is looking within their affiliates or not. Maybe a couple of our mets here can give some insight....please?

[tireman4]

Radar Update...

[MontgomeryCoWx]

WOOOO, lots of rain at the house right now I’m the last 15 minutes.



.48 inches so far with another hour of this to go it looks like.

[MontgomeryCoWx]

2.1 and counting

[unome]

just enought to get the lawn damp

I can even hear the thunder, but doubt it will get here

http://weather.cod.edu/satrad/nexrad/in ... X-N0Q-1-24

[jasons2k]

Once again, I am in a donut surrounded by red. Just like usual...

[srainhoutx]

Pouring in NW Harris County after a lot of thunder. Didn't think we'd get much of anything.