TS Arlene Holds Her Own & Heads Off to Mexico

That's pretty much it. Arlene is a minimal Tropical Storm, headed towards landfall tomorrow somewhere in Mexico. She held it together overnight, after an extremely weak looking satellite signature around Midnight. She's your typical Bay of Campeche tropical entity that sits down there, cradled in the far Southwestern Gulf and despite looking like "not much" ends up looking better and better just prior to landfall. Often, these systems this time of year down there intensify quickly, they put their head down like a good fullback trying to pick up as much yardage as they can as they head for the goal line. In this case, the goal line is very close and the game is about to be over.

No, Texas ain't gettin' any from Arlene. However, the smallest change in this overall pattern could easily bring some rain to Texas in the not so very distant future. Already, models are spinning up a possible storm and heading it towards the Houston area in several days. It's just a model right now, but these waves have been following this path for the last few weeks and it only takes a small variation in the placement of the high and it's strength to allow one to curve north towards the Texas coastline. So, it tropical moisture is what Texas is wanting, tropical moisture is what Texas will be getting down the tropical road.

I could wax poetic today about flooding and fires endangering small towns and nuclear plants but I'm gonna keep it short and keep it centered on tropical weather today. Suffice it to say that this is a year to remember when it comes to disasters far and wide across the country, across the globe. I'm sure y'all know how to find the Drudgereport if you want to read up on everything under the sun topical. As for me, I'm sticking to the tropics this morning.

I'll post later today with some more Arlene information and I'm watching a tropical wave south of Hispaniola and one that is about to enter the Caribbean in a day or so for more action. The area of convection north of Hispaniola went poof with the upper level winds yesterday. As for the rains over Florida, it's gonna keep on raining.. so getting out there early today to get my errands done. I do have to tell you, it was a beautiful night last night at the Waterways. A rare, almost cool breeze and gentle showers caressed the night people who were sitting around sipping Cafe Con Leches at 10pm with the sounds of laughter and music in the air and I was one of those people sitting there loving every moment of it!

Besos Bobbi

Link to loop for the day:
http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/flt/t1/flash-ft.html