Conditions are still quiet here in Katy, west of Houston - gusty winds and light rain. Dunno if we will get more from Rita or not.
News reports say that two hundred thousand CenterPoint Energy customers, including citizens north of us in Cy-Fair, are without power. No flickers here.
Eric Berger at the Houston Chronicle reports that we can thank our unseasonably hot September weather -- or, more precisely, the high pressure system that caused the heat wave -- for the blessing of avoiding a direct hit.
At a time of year when the city normally welcomes its first cool front, the weather has simply been dreadfully hot.How warm?
The temperature at George Bush Intercontinental Airport reached a staggering 100 degrees Thursday, shattering the old record by 4 degrees.
Turns out the heat was good for something. It saved our city.
Forecasters had thought the high pressure system dominating Texas — a common summer feature that yields warm, clear days and droughts — would weaken, allowing Rita to come storming through Texas.
But the state's high pressure system was butted up against another such system along the upper Gulf Coast, stretching across the southeastern United States.
That high pressure system turned out to be the one that weakened, steering Rita away from the middle of Texas' coast toward Louisiana.
"The Texas high just didn't weaken as anticipated," said Jill Hasling, president of Houston's Weather Research Center. "We got lucky."
Looks like things will stay docile tonight. Time for sleep.
Posted by Alan at September 24, 2005 01:23 AM