New Numbers Suggest More Active Season...

On this 1^st day of the 2017 Hurricane Season, Colorado State issued updates to their April forecast that increase the # of named storms from 11 to 14.  Plus, Joe Bastardi of Weather Bell Analytics says he believes the NW Gulf Coast (Texas & Louisiana) will see the better landfall areas along with the Carolina coasts.  Bottom line, we need to be ready as always in case we have to evacuate ahead of a major storm.  Today’s satellite loops show an increase in T-Storms over the central & eastern Gulf.  There are no signs of any surface circulations and fast upper SW winds indicate no tropical formation is likely for the next 3-5 days.  Our current rainy pattern is more connected to an active southern storm track that finds yet another system south of Arizona heading our way.   This is certainly not our typical summer time pattern that produces mainly coastal showers in the morning redeveloping inland during daytime heating.  Our rains have mainly been the result of upper disturbances moving along the southern jet stream that normally has retreated farther to our north by late May.  The 9.93” recorded at MSY places it as the 6^th wettest May dating back to 1946.   Hopefully a pattern change arrives by early next week that will allow us to dry out.  Several of my flower pots appear to have drowned during the recent heavy downpours.   But Bubba (Tomato Plant) is doing great with 19 tomatoes growing bigger by the day.  Rain is good for most plants until too much rain allows fungus to thrive, not to mention a big increase in mosquitoes down the road.  Stay tuned!

 

Enjoying the media feeding frenzy following the President’s backing out of the Paris Climate agreement.  The President wants a better deal than the current one that allows China, the World’s biggest polluter, to do NOTHING until after 2030.   That seems to make sense to me.  An agreement must be equal to all sides.    This is not about saying climate change isn’t happening.  It’s about forcing the biggest polluter to have an equal stake in reducing greenhouse gases.  Simple as that.   But if you watched the news tonight, that is not what was reported.   One reporter even said…” with the world on the brink of climate disaster”… c’mon now.  What brink?    We will solve our energy issues, but it is not a crisis.  Don’t force America to sacrifice without doing the same to China.   Come up with a new and better accord.   Do I believe that will happen?  We’re dealing with governments here.  Probably not.