Houston Area Forecast: 100% Chance of Meteors

After a week-ling lead-up, tonight, August 12/13, 2010, is finally the peak of the Perseid Meteor Shower. Wit this event, meteor season 2010 will kick off in a big way.

Every August, Earth passes through the stretch of space junk shed by comet Swift-Tuttle, reaching the deepest concentration of debris tonight. According to some estimates, under ideal conditions (dark country skies), one can expect to see 60 meteors per hour. The reason the meteors are called Perseids is because the meteors seem to radiate from the constellation Perseus. The best time to view the shower is in the pre-dawn hours, with 3-5am being best.

Don't want to stay up that late? Don't worry, Perseus rises in the Northeast around midnight and will climb higher as the night progresses. However, unless one lives out in the country, the early post-midnight hours will probably involve Perseus being low in a light pollution dome. To improve odds of seeing meteors, travel out of light-polluted Cleveland and to the suburbs or, even better, the country if you can. In the suburbs, just going from the front to back yard can make a dramatic difference as this will eliminate glare from those pesky street/house lights to a large extent.

Two things can ruin the meteor shower: clouds and the Moon. The clouds? Well, that's a regional thing. Check your local Clear Sky Clock to see what the clouds have in store for your location tonight. For us Northeast Ohioans, tonight is looking good. As for the Moon, that's an Earth-wide issue. The good news is that, this year, the Moon is just a few days past new, which means that there will be no Moon up during the time of the meteor shower. There will be a slight lunar glow in the South (opposite Perseus), but this will disappear about midnight, which is about the time Perseus clears the Northeast horizon.

So how about viewing tips?

First, plan to stay out awhile, as it takes the human eye about 15 minutes to get optimal night vision capability. The bad news is that, even one bright flash of white light will wipe out night vision, requiring you to start the process all over again. Next, grab a lawn chair or, even better, a lounge-type chair. Trying to lean back with a straight-back lawn chair can be a pain in the neck, literally! Eyes ready for dark and with something to sit/lay on, settle in for a night of hopeful meteor watching (or at the very least, stargazing), just try not to fall asleep and don't forget the bug spray!

Besides meteors, tonight can be a great time for binocular viewing, owing to your use of a chair. Under suburban (maybe) or rural skies (definitely), a pair of medium power (10x50) binoculars can yield some stunning wide-angle sights. For someone truly dedicated, why not try and keep a tally of how many meteors you see for every complete hour? Really ambitious? Why not try photographing the meteors?

Whatever you plan to do tonight, good luck and clear skies!

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Police seek ACU robber

August 6, 2010

ALVIN, Texas - Just after 9 o'clock on August 6, Alvin Police responded to a bank robbery at the Associated Credit Union of Texas branch office inside the Kroger store in the 3100 block of State Highway 35 in Alvin.

The robber was a tall dark skinned black man, 5'10- 6"00, skinny, 165-175 lbs, in his mid to late 20's. He was wearing black baseball cap, white writing on back, white insignia on front, white shirt, jeans, tennis shoes.

He waited in the pharmacy area and then approached the teller with a note that said he had a gun and handed the teller a grocery bag. He never actually displayed a gun.

If you have any information, you are asked to call. Suspect appears to be the same subject that robbed Community Bank located at 13222 Tidwell Houston TX, on Wednesday August 4th, 2010.
Anyone with information is asked to call Detective David Ives at the Alvin Police Department at 281-388-4370 Brazoria county Crime Stoppers at 1-800-460-2222 or the nearest office of the F.B.I.



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BACH Fun Fest set for Aug. 7 in Alvin

By Judy Zavalla

The Brazoria County Association for Citizens with Handicaps (BACH) invites the Alvin community to join them at their yearly fundraiser, BACH Fun Fest.

The event will be held on Saturday, Aug. 7 at the Alvin-Manvel Knights of Columbus Hall (Highway 6 and County Road 146). The event is sponsored by the Brazoria County Sheriff’s Department and the Brazoria County Peace Officer’s Association.

The event will begin with free children’s activities and entertainment from 5 p.m. until 6:30 p.m. Barbeque will be served from 5 p.m. until 7 p.m.

The silent auction will begin at 5 p.m. followed by a live auction at 6:30 p.m. A $10 donation per person will be accepted at the door.

BACH Fun Fest will include: music, horse rides, arts/crafts, clowns, face painters and games.

BACH’s mission is to help children with special needs to achieve. Through the efforts of BACH, positive child development programs are available for children with special needs. BACH also empowers families to be lifelong advocates for their children.

BACH was organized in 1973 and chartered by the State of Texas in 1975 as a non-profit, 501c3 organization. BACH provides an array of services to Brazoria County children.

To qualify for the BACH ECI, a child must be delayed in one or more of the following developmental areas: cognitive (thinking, problem solving); gross motor (sitting, walking); fine motor (hand skills), expressive language (talking)/receptive language (processing information); self help (feeding, dressing) and social (getting along with others).

BACH’s Early Childhood Intervention program works with the child’s family to develop services for each child, provide support and information to parents and help parents become advocates for their children.

BACH also provides a variety of free services to children age birth to 12-year-olds and their families through its Support Services Program.

The BACH Integration Station is a specialized clinic which focuses on the needs of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders and sensory processing issues.

For more information on BACH or the BACH Fest, call 979-849-2447 or visit the their website at www.bacheci.org.


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Test your hurricane IQ.

By GREG AINSWORTH


This year's hurricane season in the waters adjacent to the Southeastern United States is drawing more attention than usual, thanks to the oil spill in the Gulf. The National Hurricane Center expects a busier than average year, so it's time to energize our hurricane IQ.
Whether you call them hurricanes, typhoons or cyclones, they are the scourge of tropical locales worldwide. Ocean water temperatures of at least 80 degrees seem to be one of the key ingredients in their formation. Think hot and muggy -- and lots of evaporation. If other conditions are favorable in the atmosphere, winds near the surface may begin to converge, and a low-pressure system may form.


In the Northern Hemisphere, those cyclonic winds spiral in a counter-clockwise direction. All of that water vapor in the atmosphere rises and condenses inside thunderstorm complexes, releasing a great amount of energy in the process. Bands of thunderstorms stretching from the system's outer margins to the center of circulation help feed the massive heat engine with warm, moisture-laden air.

As the system matures, the characteristic cloud-free and relatively calm eye may form at the center of circulation. But surrounding the eye is the eyewall, where the most intense convection and highest wind speeds occur.

Hurricanes pose a major threat to life and property because of their ability to wreak havoc in so many different ways. Perhaps the first thing that comes to mind is wind damage -- not surprising since a storm isn't called a hurricane until it has sustained winds of at least 74 mph. In August 1969, Hurricane Camille made landfall along the Mississippi coast with sustained winds estimated at 200 mph.

An important, but often overlooked hurricane impact is the storm surge. This refers to the ocean water pushed onshore into low-lying areas by hurricane-force winds. Depending on the status of the local tides during landfall, storm surges of 15 to 20 feet are not out of the question. If you happen to live in a near-shore area at say, 10 feet above sea level, the surge can be bad news indeed. Hurricane Opal caused a 24-foot storm surge near Pensacola, Fla., in September 1995.

Even days after landfall, hurricanes, or their remnants, are still capable of producing tornadoes and flooding rains. After slamming into the coast of south Texas in September 1967, Hurricane Beulah spawned more than 100 tornadoes. Tropical Storm Claudette, whose winds didn't reach hurricane strength, nevertheless dropped 45 inches of rain on Alvin, Texas, in 1979.

For further information about these storms, check out the website for NOAA's National Hurricane Center.

Greg Ainsworth keeps an eye on local weather and climate issues. Contact him at ainsworth@theglobal.net.