The season of spring has been a great time for the growth of the Weather Museum. With donations from the recent golf tournament and contributions from foundations, the museum building has been physically attached to the Center's main building. This completed construction will be a great asset for this summer's Weather Camps. It will also allocate more room for computers and experiments, making it an innovative educational tool that will provide a service to the people of Houston as well as for visitors from outside the city who are interested in weather and the weather process. Tours of Weather Research Center now include a sneak-peak tour of the construction of the Museum. For tour times and dates, please contact the Center at (713) 529-3076.

If you had to describe the Bayou City's weather during the month of June, you could do it with one word: hot - and it would probably be a good answer. And if you had to give a reason for the heat, you might (again) want to blame it on El Niño. While it is true that this June has been rather hot (average high of 95.1 degrees, as opposed to 89.3 degrees over the last 30 years), El Niño does not appear to be the culprit. Coming out of the last seven El Niño events, the average June high has been 89.8 degrees, which is quite close to the 30-year average. Since 1970, only four years have seen June temperatures reach the century mark (1978, 1980, 1990 and 1998), with eight days hitting at least 100 in 1980. This was not an El Niño/La Niña year. One thing is for sure - it does not appear that the heat is going to give us a break anytime soon.

Wildfires originating over parts of Central America and Mexico have crept northward recently, producing a thick red, hazy sky across many of the Gulf Coast states and offshore in the Gulf of Mexico.

The fires had been burning across portions of Nicaragua, northward through El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and throughout Mexico. Mexican officials estimated more than 11,000 fires have occurred since the beginning of the year, destroying more than 600,000 acres of grass and forest lands in Mexico. Over 2,100 square miles have burned in Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.

Many of the wildfires were started by farmers burning fields for spring planting. Usually, seasonal rains expected in April and May would have doused the fires but instead Mexico has experienced a sudden, severe drought and above normal temperatures. The dry conditions have been attributed to the El Niño phenomenon.

Because high pressure has been situated over the Eastern Gulf of Mexico, southerly winds on the backside of the high have brought the smoke into the Gulf Coast region. In addition, the atmosphere over the Gulf Coast states has been capped, which keeps air from rising and dispersing. As a result, the smoke has caused a red, hazy sky and has limited visibilities. In Texas, persons affected by the smoke have complained of itchy, burning eyes, noses and throats.

A big Texas thank you to Dr. Neil Frank and his Weather Almanac which was provided by KHOU-TV and Kroger. The proceeds from this almanac have been going to the Weather Research Center and the Weather Museum and so far it has been a great success. If you're lucky, there may be a few of the almanacs left at select Kroger stores. The Board of Directors and staff of Weather Research Center would like to thank Dr. Neil Frank, KHOU-TV and Kroger for their support of the Center and the Weather Museum.

Weather Camp '98 is off to a great start this summer. Our new classes this year have generated a lot of interest and this year's attendance is certainly proof. The number of students interested in weather this year shows an impressive twenty-percent increase from last year. Some kids have even come back from previous years, which along with the growing interest has led to the addition of new sessions for older children 12 years of age and up. Upon this announcement, the two sessions (Tornado Files and Cyclone World) filled so quickly that a second Tornado Files session had to be added in order to meet the high demand. Weather Camp is a great way to educate children about weather and weather safety, so please feel free to contact Weather Research Center if you know someone that might want to attend.

A new campaign is now underway to find underwriters for museum renovations and exhibits. Underwriters are needed for programs such as Weather Camp and museum-related items involving weather history, hurricanes, tornadoes and a virtual reality display. The Center is also forming a museum advisory committee. If you or anyone you know would be interested in serving on this committee please call the Center at (713) 529-3076 or email us at wrc@wxresearch.com.

CORRECTION:

The previous newsletter incorrectly stated that a major hurricane (category 3 or higher) has winds which are 114 mph or higher. The correct value is 111 mph. We apologize for the mistake.

The 1998 hurricane season officially began June 1. Weather Research Center releases an outlook on the projected number of tropical storm systems each year. This year, the outlook calls for eight named systems in the Atlantic, with five intensifying into hurricanes. The portion of Atlantic/Gulf of Mexico coastline with the highest probability of experiencing a tropical storm or hurricane is the west coast of Florida with a 90 percent chance. The areas with the second highest likelihood are Mexico and the east coast of Florida with a 70 percent probability. For more information and a complete look at all the probabilities this year, log on to the internet and check out our website at www.wxresearch.com/outlook.

Houston received only .04 inches of rain in May 1998, making the month the second driest this century. In fact, there have only been ten other years since 1889 when the rainfall for the month of May was less than one inch. Interestingly, eight of these years occurred one year after an El Niño event:

In a nutshell, the effect La Niña is the opposite of El Niño. El Niño involves the significant warming of the Pacific Ocean surface waters. This is not conducive to marine life and the fishing industry. It also causes a reversal of atmospheric circulation, resulting in wetter Americas and a drier Western Pacific. La Niña, in turn, is the rapid cooling of those very waters to temperatures below the average. This shifts rainfall back to the western tropical Pacific and can even lead to dry spells in the Americas. The summer drought of 1988 in the United States has been linked to La Niña.

Weather Research Center is trying out a new winds and seas analysis/forecast developed by User Systems Enterprises, Inc. (USEI). USEI collects all of the wind observations acquired by satellites and combines them with surface observations for input into a weather model. USEI has asked us to provide them with feedback and comments in order to possibly improve upon their product.

Output from this model can be viewed on the Center's Weather Navigator page - Gulf of Mexico Services. If you are an Internet subscriber, you can access this product for a short period of time. It takes about 5-10 minutes to download the picture. After downloaded, a continuous loop picture is generated showing wind direction and speed for a period of 48 hours. Please look at this carefully and send us your comments. If you do not access weather data via the Internet and would like to do so, please call us for setup. The Weather Navigator is an easy and inexpensive way to receive current weather information and forecasts for all your planning needs.

Already this summer, a tropical disturbance has threatened the Northern Gulf of Mexico. Fortunately, it did not develop into a stronger system. Enough rumors circulated to put quite a scare into many people. Nonetheless, it's probably a good time to review your emergency plans - if and when a tropical storm or hurricane threatens your operations offshore. Do you know at what time you should evacuate and/or when you should start shutting down systems? You must also realize that if you have decided to evacuate your offshore rigs and platforms, odds are that your neighbors have probably decided to shut down too. When everyone is in a hurry to leave offshore, how would that affect your time-sensitive emergency plan? The meteorologists here at the Center will do their best in assisting you by giving you the best weather forecasts possible. However, it's up to you to make that final operational decision. Did you know that we can assist you in preparing and/or updating your current plans? Also, please make sure you have returned the emergency weather contact sheet that was mailed recently. That way if a weather crisis develops, especially on the weekends or holidays, we will be able to reach you. If you have any questions or would like information on how we can update or improve your plans, please give us a call.

A symposium honoring the late Carl-Gustav Rossby and his tremendous contributions in the field of meteorology was held June 8-12, 1998 in Stockholm, Sweden. Held one-hundred years after his birth, the Rossby 100 Symposium attracted people from around the globe. This included the Center's founder and Director of Research, Dr. John C. Freeman, who just happened to be Rossby's last student at the University of Chicago. Rossby had a long list of notable accomplishments on his résumé, among them the founding of the first meteorology department in the United States, located at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He was also a pioneer in atmospheric chemistry and general circulation. He was even honored with his work in mid-latitude wave disturbances. Meteorologists know these waves as Rossby waves - so named in his honor.

Roberto Gasparini, a junior in the Department of Meteorology at Texas A&M University, is this year's National Council of Industrial Meteorologists (NCIM) intern at the Center. Each year, the NCIM sponsors meteorology students working in meteorology. Roberto enjoys interacting with other people, especially the children attending Weather Camp, and is pursuing a career in broadcasting.

The World Meteorological Organization, sponsored by the United Nations, creates lists of names for tropical storms each year. There is one list per year for six years. After six years the lists are reused beginning with the first one. The only way a list can be changed is if a name is retired, which happens when a storm creates a great amount of destruction. For example, when people mention Hurricane Alicia, everyone knows that it refers to the hurricane that hit Houston in 1983. Below is the list of names for this season in the North Atlantic (there are separate lists for each of the other areas where hurricanes occur). Notice the presence of names of Hispanic and French origin in addition to those that are Anglo. Each area receives a list of names that is influenced by the cultures surrounding the area. For the North Atlantic that includes the Caribbean, the United States and Mexico.

Alex Georges Mitch Tomas

Bonnie Hermine Nicole Virginie

Charley Ivan Otto Walter

Danielle Jeanne Paula

Earl Karl Richard

Frances Lisa Shary

For more information on hurricane names, try looking at our index on the homepage (http://www.wxresearch.com) or at USA Today's site on hurricane names (http://www.usatoday.com/weather/huricane/whnames0.htm).

The Weather Research Center is happy to announce the arrival of two new meteorologists.

Dorri Breher started working here in mid-February. She graduated from Texas A&M University in December of 1996 and has a B.S. in Meteorology. She is originally from St. Louis, Missouri. Along with forecasting duties, she was named Program Coordinator for Weather Camp. She is very happy to be back in Texas and especially so close to A&M.

Steve Randle started working here in mid-May. A graduate of Texas A&M University, class of '96, he earned a B.S. in Meteorology. He is originally from Monroe, Louisiana. He has spent the past year forecasting in the aviation industry. In addition to forecasting duties, he also serves as Fundraising Coordinator for the Weather Museum. He is happy to be working here and is looking forward to the new possibilities ahead of him.