Down here on the Texas Gulf Coast summer this year has been stranger than most we’ve seen lately.
Most years, at lest here lately, by early August the predominate color around these parts has gone from green to browns. Usually as the heat of summer sears everything into dormancy the grass quits growing and leaves begin to fall. It is usually only after a tropical weather system blows by that the rains fall.
This year we have had more than the usual rainfall spread out over a longer period of time than has been normal since the early 1970’s. This has kept ground moist longer into summer than we normally see.
But the heat hasn’t held off…All week we have been seeing heat indexes above 100. Yesterday, we hit a high of 96° with a humidity reading of 98% just up the road. Today at 1pm we are just pushing 90° on the thermometer outside my kitchen window while the station down the road is reporting 94.5°. The weather prognosticators seem to like this statement this week…Heat advisory in effect until 7 PM CDT this evening…
A heat warning has been issued for the second consecutive day as scorching, sticky heat grips the Houston region.
Temperatures are forecast to be in the upper 90s, and moistness streaming ashore from the Gulf of Mexico will help the heat index soar to near 110 degrees today.
Little or no rain is forecast in Houston.
But at least, when I look out the window, the grass is still green.
