Harvey to Hammer Houston

It's no secret now that Hurricane Harvey has it eye set on the central Texas coast and that as it slowly approaches landfall, it will eventually stall over SE TX before pulling back to sea and sending its moisture eventually our way.  It has been TWELVE years since a Major hurricane has made landfall in the US; Wilma was the last in the epic year of tropical troubles in 2005.  A major hurricane is one that is Saffir Simpson Scale 3, 4 or 5.   Take a look at the Saffir Simpson Scale for Hurricanes...

Hurricanes are a lot of wind, but more importantly they are a ton of rain and water!  With the slow movement progged for this storm, some very heavy rainfall totals, record breaking in some areas, are likely with this storm.  Here is a close-up of the rainfall totals from the go-to global Euro model...the regional models have even higher totals!  Coastal flooding will also be severe as the storm slowly grinds unto the coast and water piles on the NE side of the storm with surges of ~10' or so...wow!

Just off the coast of Galveston Bay (in the graphic above) has nearly 3' of rainfall!  It's not out of the question for some areas to actually record 3' of rain with this devastating event.  And as I mentioned earlier, the remnants will eventually track up towards PA, possibly giving us a rather wet time of it for the 1st part of the Labor Day weekend...use the graphic below to track the moisture...I personally believe the track of the heaviest rains will somewhat follow a bit further SE and up the Ohio River valley...also note the the heavy rains over South Florida and just off the SE coast.  It looks like a near miss with what I believe will be Irma by Friday am...

Here is a graphic showing the Thursday pm positions of both Harvey and soon to be Irma?

And the current watches and warnings in these troubled tropical lands...note the frost advisory for the UP of Michigan.  That cool crisp O Canadian air will control our wx for the next several days...so enjoy!

I'll leave y'all with this 8.5 minute gem; truly a bluesy time will be unfortunately had for these resilient folks of Texas...

Let's all hope this storm is not as bad as what sure looks like will occur...and let's keep that Irma? system from developing too close to the coast of the SE USA.  Enjoy your pre-start-of-school 3 day week's end!

Smitty

AA:  Really hoping the people in TX heed the warnings; Harvey (how appropriate, a real blowhard!) looks ugly from my seat;  FL and the Carolinas to be spared this time I do believe, but just by a hair on my chinny chin chin...and you know I've gots lots of those!  Catch up on your mowing!