Tropical Troubles Loom Large Again.

Wow and thanks to Doug Loveridge for sending me this gorgeous shot of sunrise off Amelia Island, Florida. Doug and his wife were vacationing there as "Ophelia" was churning away offshore, and that's her in the distance. I often tell folks it's a great place to vacation. Nice beaches, not as heavily traveled as some other places, and if you can swing it after Labor Day you have the whole place to yourself. But "Ophelia" has eaten away a lot of beach from Florida into North Carolina. And my guess is the only folks hearing about the cost of that erosion will be residents near the coast. The price tag of "Katrina" and the future price tag of "Rita" will over shadow what's happened with "Ophelia". Right now there's only two real questions with "Rita". How strong will she get? And who gets smacked this time? There doesn't seem to be much doubt that "Rita" will go Cat. 3, but will she be stronger than that at landfall? It's hard for me to believe we could have two Cat. 4 landfalls in one year in the Gulf, but who knows? In the strike zone: Houston, Galveston, Palacios, down to Corpus Christi. A ton of coastal development and barrier islands potentially in trouble. Last August I was in Galveston and they keep building on the southern end of the island where there's no seawall protection. Most people living there today have never been through a big storm. "Katrina" will hopefully serve as notice that evacuation notices need to be heeded. My oldest brother lives in League City, TX. I know he watches the tropics closely, but I'm going to call just in case. He keeps all the necessary "batten down the hatches" stuff handy. Even if Houston doesn't get a direct hit, it's a city that can see a lot of flooding if "Rita" ends up close enough. My nieces place has had problems in the past. Here's the latest NHC Path for "Rita": http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at3+shtml/084912.shtml?5day?large
Here on the home front, we may see a storm or two this afternoon and evening. But then the rest of the week looks very warm and dry. Yesterday we hit 91, marking the 8th time this month we've been at or above 90 degrees. That's more 90 plus days than we had in June! And we have a chance to be near or above 90 every day through Sunday. Our average high is 82.