T-T-T-Talk about the weather... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quirky weather could be a herald of long-range pattern changes By MIKE SNYDER Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle Houstonians desperate for any hint of relief from our famously cruel summers got a mixed message from the past three months' weather. Now, at least one expert says the message may be that an early autumn is on the way. The unusual pattern began with a very wet June, followed by a very dry July and then by a series of unexpected cool fronts in August. After a brief lapse to more typical conditions, cooler weather returned Wednesday, ushering in September with an official low of 65 degrees that broke the 1972 record by one degree. Weather watchers groping for meaning in all of this might take heart in the thoughts of Fred Schmude, a senior meteorologist with ImpactWeather, a private, Houston-based forecasting service. "It definitely could be an indication that we're under a changing type of weather pattern," suggesting a possible early fall or colder-than-usual winter, Schmude said. "The atmosphere has shown a lot of variability." The quirky summer weather started with persistent June rains that helped to make the first six months of 2004 the wettest in Houston's recorded history. But gardeners had to haul the sprinklers out of the garage the following month, which turned out to be the seventh-driest July on record at Bush Intercontinental Airport. Then, in the midst of much-feared August, Houstonians were startled when blast-furnace conditions failed to greet them as they stumbled out the door for their morning paper. Temperatures fell into the 60s on seven consecutive days ending Aug. 18, and daily lows broke or tied records Aug. 15-17. After Wednesday's record low, the National Weather Service forecast a low of 68 this morning, possibly threatening the 1987 record of 67. Meteorologists said this cool front is a bit weaker than those that produced the mid-August lows. Factors that affected this summer's weather patterns included dramatic changes in upper-level wind patterns that helped to "turn the faucet off" between June and July, Schmude said. Rainfall at Bush plunged from 18.3 inches in June to less than an inch in July. An important influence in the August cool fronts, Schmude said, was a persistent trough of low pressure across the eastern United States that drove cold air southward. Chances are good that this trough will remain in place a while longer, he said, perhaps leading to early cold fronts with temperatures dropping into the 50s by mid- to late September. YES!!!! BRING THE FOOTBALL WEATHER!!! Looking further ahead, Schmude said these patterns could produce freezing temperatures in the area's northern suburbs by late November or early December. That would be a sharp contrast to last winter, when freezing temperatures were rare in Southeast Texas. Jill Hasling, director of Houston's Weather Research Center, another private service, offered a more cautious assessment. Hasling said this summer's weather has been part of a long-range pattern that includes occasional summer months that are cooler or rainier than usual. She noted that August 1992 offered unseasonably cool temperatures as Republican National Convention delegates gathered in Houston. "It just kind of goes in cycles," Hasling said. "Everything balances out." http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/2773880
I read a couple of sites talking about this very thing saying that we had a unique weather pattern in place that caused the sub-tropical jet stream to stay further south this year than normal giving us cooler temperatures. That probably means a longer fall/winter with cooler-than-usual temperatures. I know that many of the natural signs of fall are happening now. The light is different in the fall. It casts much more contrasted shadows and the sky is a deeper blue. We've been seeing that the past couple of weeks. Yesterday, I saw the first hummingbird of the year in our yard. They come around close to this time, but it is definitely early by at least a couple of weeks. There are plenty of signs in nature that things are changing outside the weather and I couldn't be happier.
i'm with ya...i don't want to be shoveling snow. but there's a happy medium....i'd take a cooler than usual fall.
BAH@! You're wrong. Houston isn't exactly a snow "mecca". We get it once about every 15 years. And it only lasts for a day. That is why it's so cool. It rarely happens. And you're right. If I wanted snow all the time, I'd move back to Alaska.
I thought I was the only one who noticed the darker light outside during the day. It just felt like it was already October the past couple of days. Very weird.
The only people who live for fall and winter weather are chicks. They love it because they can wear that oh-so-cute sweater they just bought at The Gap. If I can't wear shorts on the golf course year round I'm pissed.
I've noticed that since that cool front two and half weeks ago. I keep thinking there should be a lot of football on the television! Nice reference there, ima.
