Hello and Goodbye Edouard

After a great week in Wisconsin, I rushed back thinking that my group would be deploying to St. Croix in the Virgin Islands on Sunday or Monday.  Well, it was not to be.  The system in the Atlantic that our customers were anxious about simply didn't materialize.  Hence, no trip to the sunny beaches of the Caribbean.

While we were looking to the east, a depression was forming to our backs in the Gulf of Mexico.  As it reached tropical storm strength, it was named Edouard - the fifth named storm of the season - and headed west towards Texas.  This morning, Edouard made landfall in NE Texas and is currently bringing heavy rains and squally weather to the Houston area and to the east as far as western Louisiana.  

The radar image above was taken from the Houston National Weather Service radar at approximately 1:00 p.m. EDT today, Tuesday.  

So, we say goodbye to Edouard and await what comes next.  At the moment, the tropics from the Gulf to the west coast of Africa is devoid of disturbed weather considered even slightly favorable for development into a tropical storm.  We have a long way to go in the 2008 hurricane season, so we're not ready to toss in the towel just yet.

Some of you inquired as to how you might learn of our plans on a real-time basis.  After some hounding by a couple of you, I"m giving you the number and extension to our P-3 hurricane hotline which is used to provide personnel here of the latest plan for the day.  The number is:

1-800-729-6622 x3128

If you care about the Gulfstream G-IV, that extension is:  3144

Some of you also indicated an interest in the Weather Channel's interactive radar display which is currently in its Beta stage on the web.  The image to the right shows the storm that passed by and around us last week.  The display can be zoomed in or out, and various controls at the bottom of the display allow you to play, pause, stop, control transparency, etc.  You can also put in your city or zip code and the map will go instantly to your neighborhood or wherever you wish.

This is online and can be found at:

http://www.weather.com/weather/map/interactive

This is not a link (I haven't figured out how to insert links yet - my next project), so you must copy and past in your browser.

Enjoy, and stay tuned for the next installment, which will chronicle "Fay," if and when she develops.  Fay will be followed by Gustav and then Hanna.  

See you next time.