Why is it Hot and Dry Here in Central Texas?

The Lazy, Hazy Days of Summer are finally here and its only the First of June. As we all know living in Central Texas that the next 3 to 4 months will be mainly hot and dry from years past. So why did we go from a stormy May into a very quiet and dry Early June? Well... you have can blame it on this High Pressure Ridge that is sitting on top of the Lone Star state. In the picture is an illustation of what this upper level high pressure looks like in the atmosphere as it plants itself on top of Texas. Here is a little meteorology for you... High Pressure is air that is sinking towards the surface of the Earth. The complete opposite is happening during a Low Pressure area. In a Low, the air is rising up away from the surface. When you have rising air, that can help make clouds and rain. This is why we associate Low Pressure with unsettled and sometimes stormy weather. Underneath a High, we usually associate it with fair or good weather conditions. Because sinking air in the atmosphere inhibits and detour cloud development, hence we usually have alot of sunshine and clear skies. This particular high pressure that usually sets up on top of the southern U.S. in the Summer time is called the Bermuda High Pressure system. This big high dominates the weather pattern from Texas eastward towards Florida and off the East coast towards Bermuda. And from time to time will reposition itself East to West in this general area. This is why most of the time are weather is quiet and hot during the Summer months unless we have an unusal cool front moving down from the North or we have some kind of Tropical Trouble coming in from the Gulf. Otherwise, its mostly sunny, hot, and dry for us till October and the changing of the seasons.

Recently, I have been asked about our computer model software or more commonly known as our Futuretrac and how it works. Too the left are a couple snapshots of what you see at home when watching the weathercast on NBC 6 News during weather. The TrueView Futuretrac is exclusive to the NBC 6 WeatherPlus Team because we are the only guys in town with this technology and resources. I have to say its amazing sometimes on how well it picks up on different weather patterns and weather events here across Central Texas. Its sometimes scary because some of the models we will look at do not show anything happening for us and this computer model which is run in our WeatherPlus Center several times a day will show something to us and it actually happens or unfolds to reality. Let me give you a couple of examples... Remember the Easter Snow Storm last year. Now I was working that weekend and none of the models picked up on that snow event except our very own Futuretrac and nailed the bulls eye on Bell county. That to me was very neat to see happen from our weather technology.

Another example was last month when we had several rounds of severe storms come through our area. Infact, we had three different rounds happening about 6 to 8 hours apart during the night and the next day. That was the event that caused all that wind damage in Salado and in southern Bell county. Our Futuretrac did an awesome job picking up on the severe storms and the timing of that event while other models had no clue what was going on. Futuretrac take in all the current and past weather data around Central Texas and generates forecast weather conditions up to 48 hours out using physics and equations that we have learned over the years about how the atmosphere works. So I like to heavily weigh my forecast on the output and information from this computer model. Now all models are not 100% right and do have flaws sometimes. But the technology today is so much better than what we had just a few years ago and is constanly improving in accuracy.

On the Futuretrac, we have the only 3D clouds and trueview technology in this market. It gives you a virtual look at what the weather is going to do in a very realistic way. It also shows how the temperatures will change through out the day in your hometown. The pictures I posted on here shows you for example the 6 am morning temperature with the future weather conditions and the 5 pm afternoon temperature.

At NBC 6 WeatherPlus, we are always trying to develop new ways to show you and tell you the weather in an informative and interesting way. Anyone can get infront of a temperature map and "read" you the weather. But I like to try to explain and teach you a little bit about meteorology as I do my weathercast and with the graphics behind me on TV.

Well I think I will wrap up this session of my blog today. I hope it gave you some new insight about how a High Pressure weather system works and about how our Futuretrac computer model works. Have a great night and try to say cool!

Mike Griffin
NBC 6 Meteorologist