This little swirl caught my eye Monday and when I walked into the office today, David Paul and I had quite a conversation about this. We've been checking the surface pressures from buoys near off the Louisiana coast to see if they're falling. This would be a sign that low pressure might be forming the very warm Gulf waters. Through this evening, I've seen a slight drop, but nothing dramatic. Also, I've yet to see any east winds; most of the buoys report southerly winds. An east wind would be a sign that winds are beginning to circulate around a low pressure center.

Since there is high pressure in the upper atmosphere above the Gulf and waters are warm (over 85 degrees), this is a perfect environment for allowing tropical development. David noted that this is how Allison formed and Alicia formed. I recalled last year's very short-lived Humberto as a storm that spun up in less than 18 hours.

That's why I always pay close attention to a cloud mass in the Gulf this time of year.

1 Comments

Ashleigh from conroe said:

About two hours ago a tornado hit conroe on 1485 lot of trees are down, power lines all over the road and it is closed down starting at 105, looked really bad, one house we saw had a whole oak tree on top of it...... if anyone knows anything else plz let me know

August 3, 2008 5:56 PM

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