Latest on Tropical Storm Don and the Heat!
TROPICAL STORM DON HEADING TOWARD TEXAS… HEAT CONTINUES…
The big weather story today was the formation of Tropical Storm Don. The National Hurricane Center sent a plane down to investigate the system and found a closed circulation and winds around 40 mph. The track of Don has the chance to impact us here in North Texas. Below is the forecasted track for Don as of 4pm Wednesday. The official forecast has landfall Friday afternoon along the TX coast as a Tropical Storm. The forecast has winds up to 65 mph with the storm. You can also click on this link from our CBS affiliate in Miami for a more interactive map.
http://miami.cbslocal.com/tropics/
WHERE WILL DON GO???
Don will be steered by our big upper level high pressure system. The intensity of this High will influence when or if Don can turn a little northward. A more northward track would mean more cloud cover for us and at least a few scattered showers and thunderstorms on Friday and Saturday. It could also break our streak of 100 degree days. The upper level winds are generally out of the east over the Gulf of Mexico. This would push the system more into South Texas than to the upper Texast coast.
This is a small tropical storm. The small storms do not always move in the direction they should when you look at the upper level steering winds. Below is the forecast models track from Wednesday afternoon. You can see the spread, but the bulk of the models favor a South Texas landfall. The lines on the map represent the track of the circulation that is Tropical Storm Don. Each line represents one computer model and where it thinks Don will be located in the future.This is more in line with my thinking.
DON's IMPACT ON OUR LOCAL WEATHER…
There are two scenarios… 1. Don moves farther north. We get some cloud cover and a few scattered showers and thunderstorms. It will be very hot and humid with highs in the upper 90s. Our string of 100 degree weather would be broken for one or two days either Friday or Saturday.
2. Don moves into South Texas. In my opinion, this appears to be the more likely scenario. We would have very little impact from Don. It will by mostly sunny. Temps will still make it into the 100s. There could be a few more spotty showers and thunderstorms. But coverage will be very low like it has been. So not much of a change to our weather.
HEAT CONTINUES…
Today was day number 26 in a row of triple digit heat. The high at DFW was 104 degrees. Don is the only way we will break our streak. Next week looks to be just as hot if not hotter as the upper level high settles back over Texas after being nudged to the northeast this weekend. Next Wednesday and Thursday could feature highs in the 104 to 109 range. Ouch!
