Sometimes, I just gotta wonder about the journalists on our itty-bitty community newspaper staff. It's not like the storms are even coming CLOSE to Texas, so it's just funny how they worded it -- that they would miss the "county."
http://www.galvnews.com/story.lasso?wcd=22976
Tropical storms expected to miss county
By Nathan Smith
The Daily News
Published August 11, 2004
LEAGUE CITY — Two tropical storms that kick-started this year’s sluggish hurricane season bear watching but aren’t expected to punish Galveston County, National Weather Service meteorologists said.
Tropical Storm Bonnie spent Tuesday traveling through the central Gulf of Mexico, likely headed for landfall near the Florida panhandle, said Bill Read, meteorologist in charge at the National Weather Service’s League City office.
Bonnie became the year’s second named storm after forming in the Gulf on Monday.
“It’s still a tiny little tropical storm, with winds going out 40 miles from its center,” said Read. “On the forecast, it looks like Bonnie will start moving faster and further northeast starting (today). Early Thursday it should make landfall between Mobile, Ala., and north of Tampa, Fla. By then, it’s forecast to reach minimal hurricane conditions.”
The center of Tropical Storm Bonnie was about 315 miles southwest of the mouth of the Mississippi River Tuesday evening. The storm was moving north at 6 mph and was expected to begin its gradual turn northeast today.
The path of Tropical Storm Charley, which formed in the Caribbean near the Windward Islands on Monday, is more difficult to judge, said Read.
Though the storm is likely to strengthen as if moves northwest into the Gulf, out-of-the-ordinary weather patterns could help protect Galveston County from what could become a serious hurricane, said Read.
“Sometime Friday Charley should come into the Gulf through the Yucatan Straits,” he said. “It’ll follow a more northerly track and probably become a problem for Florida sometime toward the weekend.”
A cool front coming through the area should help steer the storm east, clear of the Galveston area, said Read.
“The reason the storms are turning northeast is this relatively unusual weather pattern we’ve been in all summer,” he said. “We’ve been having northwest winds in mid to upper levels of the atmosphere that should push Charley out after it enters the Gulf. We can’t really ignore Charley yet, though; usually, in August, when you see something near the Yucatan, it’s coming our way.”
The recent cool fronts that have moved into the Galveston area during the past few weeks are rather rare summer phenomena in Texas, said Read.
“Usually we’re deep in the summer this time of year, and cold fronts are not something we usually see,” he said. “The one feature of our current weather patterns that’s most responsible (for the front) has been a trough of low pressure running from Canada down the East Coast. That’s what has helped drive the fronts down from up north.”
Galveston County might see some residual effects as the front moves.
“There’s a possibility that we’ll get a line of thunderstorms along with the front heading into Thursday,” said Read. “After that, we should dry out, and it should by sunny, warm with lower humidity again, like last weekend.”
Just had to share....
