Friday, October 21, 2011

The Orionids Meteor Shower to Peak Tonight, Tomorrow Morning


The remains of Haley’s Comet will intercept the Earth’s orbit late tonight early tomorrow morning producing a meteor shower as these small particles burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere. The peak time for this event will be after midnight and by 2:00AM up to 20 meteors per hour can be expected. Although this is not as active as some meteor showers, Orionids have been known to streak far across the sky looking like balls of fire as they race along the horizon.
So where do you need to look to see this event? In the southeastern sky you will be able to find the constellation giving Orionids their name, the Orion.


It is from this general direction the meteors should fly across the sky. There may be a few clouds tonight but overall, the viewing conditions appear to be fairly good across East Texas tonight into tomorrow morning.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Scattered Frost Possible Tonight

A cold Canadian high pressure will move into East Texas this evening. As this occurs very dry air will be in place along with clear skies. With the high pressure moving over East Texas this will allow for our winds to die down to near calm by tomorrow morning. This will provide the perfect conditions for evaporational cooling which will allow for a few places to get downright cold this evening.

A lake wind advisory continues through this afternoon as we will see wind gusts to 30mph. But as we approach sunset the winds will significantly die down allowing for temperatures to cool off rapidly. Dew points (the temperature at which dew forms) this evening will be well below freezing setting the stage for the formation of patchy frost. The following image shows dewpoints ranging from 20 degrees along the I-30 corridor to the middle 20s in our southern counties. This will allow for areas with calm winds to drop well into the 30s. As dew forms, it will be forming on objects whose surface temperatures are below freezing. This will cause patchy frost to form.

Now we are not expecting wide spread frost this evening as most places will remain right around the 38 to 40 degree mark. But in our normally cooler locations temperatures could drop below 38 degrees making the formation of frost more likely. If winds die off soon enough, parts of our northeastern counties could get close to freezing. This is not expected to be a killing frost or freeze but if you have any tender vegetation, you may want to bring them inside.