Rain ending, sky clearing

High pressure will be pushing south into Texas on Friday. That will bring an end to the rain in the Houston area and bring us sunshine for the weekend!

The front edge of the cooler air will be stalling along the coast so I can't rule out a few showers around High Island, Galveston and Freeport late Thursday night and early Friday morning. But as the north winds blow cool, dry air into the area, we'll notice slow clearing during the afternoon.

Temperatures will be a few degrees cooler than our normal, average temperatures for mid-October.  But who's going to complain?!

More action in the Atlantic

The tropics are active again with two tropical cyclones, one dissipating storm and another trying to form.

Tropical Storm Nana developed and dissipated over the far eastern Atlantic Ocean over the last two days.  Tropical Storm Omar in the eastern Caribbean Sea is getting stronger. Tropical Depression #16 in the western Caribbean is also becoming organized and could become a tropical storm within 24 hours.  And if that weren't enough, there's another tropical wave in the deep tropics.

None of these storms is expected to affect the Houston-Galveston area. Even if the storm in the western Caribbean drifts into the Gulf of Mexico, and it probably won't, the weather pattern over Texas and the continental United States would keep it from moving north.

So far this year. fifteen tropical storms have formed in the Atlantic basin, which also includes the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. Six of these storms strengthened into hurricanes and three of these became major hurricanes with winds over 110 mph. Omar could become the seventh hurricane of the season and if TD#16 strengthens into Tropical Storm Paloma it would be the sixteenth named storm of the season. The numbers are within the range forecast earlier this summer by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Hurricane season officially ends November 30.

Hurricane Ike: One month later

A month ago, we were just starting to see the damage left behind by Hurricane Ike. Since then, life has returned back to normal for many in the Houston area. The power is on. The tree branches are cleaned up. Roof damage is being repaired. For those who live closer to the coast, however, the Road to Recovery will take a lot longer.

I took a drive around the area to see first-hand how the rebuilding was coming along. Traffic is moving on the island once again. But many of the cars have logos on the sides advertising insurance, mold remediation and construction companies. There are a few tourists. But these folks aren't here for the beach, because there is none. People are taking pictures of the debris and the signs of Ike which are everywhere.

Our friends in Galveston are back home, and have started tearing out wet floors and walls, removing the damaged appliances and furniture. FEMA reports 66,000 people in Galveston County have requested help. The city has already issued hundreds of permits so residents can repair or rebuild their damaged homes. Although finding a construction company to complete the repairs is another challenge. The city is busy removing debris which continues to pile up along almost every residential street in town.

Driving along Bolivar Peninsula, it's still difficult to tell where you are. The view in all directions is exactly the same: nothing. The power companies are busy putting up power poles but very little has changed. And outside of the utility crews, there are no people here. Occasionally you see a sign that someone has tacked onto a board marking the location of their lot. But the rebuilding has not started here yet. Off in the distance, you can still see cars buried in the sand. It's like visiting a ghost town.

You've probably seen the picture of the lone house left standing in Gilchrist. A couple of miles to the east, there's another group of homes you probably haven't heard about. All of them are about 15 feet above the ground. I'm sure when they were first built, the neighbors thought these looked out of place compared to the homes built much lower. But these house survived because they were high enough to keep them out of Ike's surge. Everything underneath was washed away, including the stairs you climb to get inside.

Homeowners on the west end of Galveston Island have started making repairs. Here on Pirate's Beach, the buildings are still standing although many have substantial damage. Homes right along the water can't be fixed until the beach is rebuilt. As you can see in the picture to the right about six feet of sand was washed away by the storm surge. What's left of the protective "Geotube" is visible in the water.

There are signs of progress and yet there is still so much work to do.

Hurricane Norbert could bring rain to West Texas

Although Hurricane Norbert has weakened, it is still a very well organized tropical cyclone. Winds were 135 mph for awhile on Wednesday but as of early Friday morning, they had decreased to less than 100 mph.

This storm is off the west coast of Mexico. It should make landfall in southern Baja California early Saturday morning and then track northeast. The moisture from Norbert could produce heavy showers across northern Mexico and west Texas this weekend. Flooding is likely in these areas. 

We still expect dry weather in the Houston area, although it will be humid.

Norbert is an Eastern Pacific storm so the name is from a different list than we use for Atlantic hurricanes. To the southeast of Norbert, Tropical Storm Odile (pronounced oh-DEAL) is expected to strengthen into a hurricane as it tracks toward Baja.

We continue to monitor tropical waves in the Atlantic and Caribbean as well. Weather conditions are becoming a little more favorable for development.

Hurricane Ike caused environmental problems too

The damage caused by Hurricane Ike includes more than destroyed homes and businesses, downed trees and power lines. The storm also caused extensive environmental damage. The Coast Guard, EPA and other state agencies have responded to more than 3000 reports of pollution associated with the hurricane.

Most calls concerned abandoned propane tanks, paint cans and other hazardous materials containers which washed up on the shore, marshes and backyards.  According to an analysis of federal data by the Associated Press, at least a half million gallons of crude oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico and our local bays and bayous. That’s enough to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool.  In most cases there was nothing to clean up, because the oil was dispersed by the wind and storm surge. While many of the chemical plants shut down before the storm, power failures also allowed some chemicals to be released directly into the atmosphere. Additional reports of contamination are likely as the cleanup continues around the area.

Tropical Storm Marco headed to Mexico

Hurricane Hunters had to make a quick trip to the Bay of Campeche today to investigate a small little cloud mass. Once inside the storm they found winds blowing up to 65 mph. The thirteenth depression of the season has intensified into Tropical Storm Marco.

This storm will have no affect on the Houston area weather forecast.

Marco will be around for less than 24 hours; it should make landfall near Tuxpan, Mexico by Tuesday evening. But despite its small size, it could deliver a powerful punch. Winds will be near hurricane strength at landfall.

By the way, our numbers guy, Meteorologist Travis Herzog compared the size of the wind field of Marco to the size of Hurricane Ike and he figures Marco is 1/84th the size of Ike. Another way to look at it: Ike was 84 times bigger than Marco.

Texas approves plan to restore Galveston's beach

The storm surge and rough waves from Hurricane Ike started rolling ashore 24 hours before landfall. In the end, much of the sand along the coast was washed away.

The Texas General Land Office said they plan to restore the beach along the seawall and they're going to get started right away. Commissioner Jerry Patterson said, "This emergency project will protect the city's greatest asset."

In addition to drawing tourists to Galveston, the beach protects the seawall which in turn protects the city. Built in 1904, the seawall is supported by timber underpinnings. Patterson said if these get washed out by the surge from another storm, the seawall could fail.

Trucks will begin hauling in sand from a source near East Beach in December. The sand will be dumped along a stretch of beach running from 10th to 61st street. The project is expected to cost at least $6 million and should be completed by Spring Break 2009.

Computer models hint at tropical development

For the last few weeks, the Global Forecast System (GFS) computer model has been spinning up tropical cyclones in the Atlantic basin. But the timing, intensity and track of these storms changes daily.

For example, earlier this week the GFS indicated a tropical storm could be tracking across the Gulf of Mexico by the middle of October. You didn't hear us talking about that on 13 Eyewitness News because we didn't any faith in that data. The day before, the storm wasn't there. And sure enough, the next day the model didn't show anything in the Gulf.  As of late Friday, the model still does not indicate anything in the Gulf but it is forecasting no fewer than four tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Ocean! (See the image to the left.)

We look for consistency in the forecast data before we believe it. Does the model show the same storm developing and tracking in the same general area with each update? If it doesn't, then we don't have a lot of faith in the model. But sometimes it works like magic. Tropical Storm Laura was accurately forecast by the model several days before it actually developed.

We get a new run of data from the GFS every six hours. That well-developed storm you see east of the Lesser Antilles in the image above keeps showing up. While the track and timing keeps changing, the depth of the low pressure and the strength of the storm has been fairly consistent.

That could be Marco.

Air pollution problems in the Houston area

The air quality pollution level became unhealthy on Thursday afternoon in some of our local neighborhoods. The light south winds pushed the pollution from the Ship Channel and the industrial area in Galveston County into northeast Harris County and southwest Liberty County. An Pollution Warning was issued for people living near Lake Houston, Crosby, Barrett, Highlands, Mont Belvieu, Stilson and Dayton.

This comes on the day when the Environmental Protection Agency granted Governor Rick Perry's request to have Houston's pollution problem classified as "severe."  The new classification gives the region until June 2019, an extra nine years, to meet federal health standards. That also means the air quality won't get significantly better for an extra nine years.

This map shows the current pollution levels in the Houston area. (The colors orange, red and purple indicate increasingly worse air quality.)

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality issues an air quality forecast on their website. This is also the forecast we show on the "Weather and Health" report on 13 Eyewitness News.  You can also sign up for free email alerts on the TCEQ website.

Wider view of Hurricane Ike damage

A special NASA satellite shows how much of Bolivar Peninsula and Chambers County was scoured by Hurricane Ike.

Vegetation is colored red in this false-color image . Two years ago, most of the area was covered with grass, trees and crops.  The image to the left was taken a few days ago. Now, most of the area is shaded gray or brown indicating a lack of vegetation. The red spot near the coast is High Island which sits almost 40' above sea level.

The high salt content of the storm surge water killed off most of the vegetation in the area. It's also remarkable that two weeks after the storm there's still a lot of standing water, seen as pockets of dark blue.

Here's a link to another high-resolution image showing the extent of the inland flooding caused by Hurricane Ike.