Why All The Winds here?

The 4 PM NHC update is in and it keeps T.S. Beta moving slowly to the WNW at 6 mph AWAY from us moving inland north of Corpus late Monday into Tuesday.

It becomes a depression on Wednesday as it turns back to the NE and begins a faster forward motion for Thursday & Friday.   So one of my friends living on the 9th floor downtown asked me why so windy if the storm is not coming here?

Our current wind speeds on the South Shore down to the coast are 20-30 with gusts to 40+.  Tides have risen as the direction shifted more easterly and there is widespread high water outside the levee protection system.  I've mentioned before what is happening here  is more like a winter like situation where cold air from the north is moving over the warm Gulf waters.  The physics of that set up means the air over the Gulf rises with the colder air accelerating along the coasts rushing in to replace the rising air.

60s & 70s from us back into Florida are diving down into the Gulf.   Look at how low the dew points are to our NE.   All of this cooler and drier air should mean our rain fall totals will not be as heavy as earlier projected.

The top graphic is from this morning while the bottom is just issued.  Clearly the earlier 15-20+" totals are now 10-15" at worst and could even drop further as more dry air is drawn into the center.  Satellite views have shown that happening this afternoon.

There was a burst of storms fire off midday with even the hints of an eye trying to pop out.  But look at the last color pic that has that burst fading.  We still have 2 separate rain areas on radar and the one to our SE is not rotating back around to Beta.

My hope is that when Beta does make the move back to the NE, that area over the Gulf will have weakened as more cooler and drier air moves in.  But there's a wild card.

NHC still give a weak swirl a slight chance to develop.  Radar returns have increased this afternoon.  What might that do to the storms to our SE?  Hey, at this stage, I don't know.  It's more wait and see.  Next update around 10 PM.  Stay tuned!