HOUSTON – No waiting until May for flowers around here -- just ask the bluebonnets.
Don’t forget the Chappell Hill Bluebonnet Festival in just a couple of weeks, April 15-16. The festival is free (parking is $10) and pets are welcome. The picture above is the Pink Ground Phlox, which is famous for showing up across the country this month and, thus, this month’s full moon Wednesday night is coined the Pink Moon which has everything to do with the flower and nothing to do with the moon being pink.
Seeing that Pink Moon from here will get tricky as we’re in for a long period of clouds and rain, Wednesday to Saturday specifically. Here’s the American Model and you’ll notice a front moves in and doesn’t move out until Sunday. That could be the focus for as much as six inches of rain over those several days.
Total rain amounts from the American model highlight some of the heaviest rain right over Houston, so we need to be on guard for minor flooding:
Speaking of showers, by the time we get to late month we should be able to see the Lyrid Meteor Showers. The best nights are April 21-22 although the rate of 15 meteors per hour is not exactly impressive. You can find out all about this one at Earthsky.org.
The Climate Prediction Center is calling for a wetter and warmer month for our area, so this is all falling into place:
In the meantime, we could use a little rain around here as we’re seeing in last week’s U.S. drought monitor anywhere from abnormally dry to severe drought conditions in Southeast Texas:
Happy April and get ready for the heat to turn on today and tomorrow! 90° is possible today -- no foolin’.
Frank
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