August inland, May at the coast.
SURF:
The inland areas have seen a lot of August this past week with hot weather and tropical clouds, but here at the coast, it’s been a repeat of May with low clouds sticking around, no hurricane swells in sight, and our water temps are a cool 67 degrees.
Tides the next few days are 4' at sunrise, down to 2' after lunch, and almost 5' at sunset.
FORECAST:
If the Lidia S windswell does materialize late Sunday, look for it to be gone by Monday. After that it’s pretty flat around here with just some background small knee high NW windswell to start the week.
WEATHER:
Tricky forecast for the coming week. Finally something to talk about since the surf won’t cooperate! As mentioned above, high pressure may strengthen slightly this weekend and push the clouds out to sea. Temps at the beaches will be around 80 and sunny skies. Normal for August. Then Lidia moves up the coast from Baja and we should see an even bigger increase in tropical moisture than what we saw today (incredibly), and a stray shower at the coast may be possible late Sunday/Monday. Lidia is gone by Tuesday and the rest of next week is warm again at the beach IF… the low clouds don’t hug the coast. It’s a safe bet that we’ll see hot steamy weather east of the 5 freeway again and MAYBE some sun at the coast- and a chance at a stray tropical shower on Monday.
BEST BET:
Small leftover S/NW tomorrow, MAYBE S windswell from Lidia late Sunday, and new small NW next Thursday. Keep that Rhino Chaser in the closet.
NEWS OF THE WEEK:
By now you’ve heard of the ongoing devastation from Hurricane Harvey. Here’s some numbers to put it in perspective:
1
The rain from Harvey is in a class of its own. The storm has unloaded over 50 inches of rain east of Houston, the greatest amount ever recorded in the Lower 48 states from a single storm. John Nielsen-Gammon, Texas state climatologist, said a rain gauge near Mont Belvieu at Cedar Bayou, about 40 miles east of Houston, had registered 51.9 inches of rain through late Tuesday afternoon. This total exceeds the previous record of 48 inches set during tropical cyclone Amelia in Medina, Texas in 1978.
2
The number of Category 4 hurricanes on record that have made landfall in the Texas Coastal Bend region. Hurricane Carla in September 1961 produced catastrophic damage from storm surge and high winds in Port O'Connor and Palacios, Texas, among other locations.
The only other Category 4 landfall of record near the Texas Coastal Bend was the infamous Indianola hurricane of August 1886, which devastated the town of Indianola just 11 years after another Category 3 hurricane, eventually turning the former bustling port into a ghost town.
3
Nearly any city would be overwhelmed by the more than 4 feet of rain that Hurricane Harvey has dumped since Friday, but Houston is unique in its regular massive floods and inability to cope with them. This is the third 100-year-or-more type of flood in three years. Experts blame too many people, too much concrete, insufficient upstream storage, not enough green space for water drainage and, especially, too little regulation. "Houston is the most flood-prone city in the United States," said Rice University environmental engineering professor Phil Bedient. "No one is even a close second — not even New Orleans, because at least they have pumps there."
7
Days of heavy rain in some parts of Texas from Harvey, from August 25th through August 31st.
19
Harvey’s total rainfall concentrated over a 20,000-square-mile area represents nearly 19 times the daily discharge of the Mississippi River.
30
30 percent of Harris County, which includes Houston, is under water. That’s about 530 square miles.
49.76
Inches is the average yearly rainfall at Houston's Bush Intercontinental Airport. Harvey of course has dumped all of that in 1 week.
56
Hours it took for Harvey to strengthen from a tropical depression on Aug. 23 to a Category 4 hurricane prior to landfall two days later.
82
The number of Atlantic Basin tropical cyclone names retired from future use since 1954, when one is so deadly and/or destructive that a World Meteorological Organization committee deems its future use inappropriate. Harvey has been in use in the six-year rotation of Atlantic storm names since 1981.
130
Estimated maximum sustained winds of Hurricane Harvey at landfall near Rockport, Texas, on Aug. 25.
938
Minimum surface pressure of Hurricane Harvey, in millibars, at landfall. This tied for the 16th lowest pressure U.S. landfall on record, according to NOAA/AOML. It was also the strongest hurricane landfall, by pressure, in the U.S. since Rita in 2005. This pressure was lower than the last Category 3 Texas Coastal Bend landfalling hurricane, Celia in August 1970 (945 mb), which hammered Corpus Christi with wind gusts up to 161 mph, damaging almost 90 percent of the city's businesses and 70 percent of its residences.
1961
The last time a Category 4 hurricane made landfall in the Texas Coastal Bend.
Hurricane Carla in September 1961 produced catastrophic damage from storm surge and high winds in Port O'Connor and Palacios, Texas, among other locations.
2004
The last year there was a Category 4 U.S. hurricane landfall, Hurricane Charley, on Aug. 13, 2004. in southwest Florida.
3100
Approximate miles traveled by Harvey, or its remnant, since it first became a tropical storm east of Barbados on Aug. 17 until its final landfall along the Texas coast.
4323
Days since the last Category 3 or stronger hurricane made U.S. landfall, since Wilma plowed into South Florida on Oct. 24, 2005. This was a record-long such stretch, according to Colorado State University tropical scientist, Dr. Phil Klotzbach.
12,000,000
$12 million dollars as of Thursday evening that NFL All-Pro JJ Watt has raised for hurricane victims.
190,000,000,000
$190 billion. Estimated cost of damage to Texas from Hurricane Harvey
15,000,000,000,000
15 trillion plus gallons of water that is estimated to have fallen as rain on Texas from the storm
PIC OF THE WEEK:
Not sure if you saw my signature last week but I found out I had a long lost Aunt that just won the Powerball. After reminding her how important I was in her life, she decided to part with some of her winnings. I decided to buy this gem. I may have to invite her sometime.
Keep Surfing,
Michael W. Glenn
Buff
Allowed To Wear White After Labor Day
World’s #1 Surf Forecaster
