Friday, May 18, 2007

One last taste of spring

Yesterday was nice. Today is even nicer. The warm-but-comfortable temperatures, clear skies, gentle breezes and low humidity are supposed to last through Sunday. A late-season cold front passed through the city earlier this week, knocking temperatures down into the low 80s and giving us our last taste of spring. As the local meteorologists have noted, the weather simply doesn't get much better than this for this time of year.

The big calendar in our kitchen claims that summer does not officially begin until the Summer Solstice on June 21st. As I argued last December, however, this really isn't true: the summer and winter solstices are astronomical events that have little to do with actual weather conditions. As was clear to anybody who walked outside earlier this week, before the front rolled through, and felt the heat (we hit the 90s on Monday and Tuesday) and oppressive humidity, summer in Houston has already begun. The pleasant weather we're getting right now is merely a respite. Once it's gone, the heat and humidity will be back, and they'll be here to stay through September.

So enjoy the weekend, because we won't see another one like it for a long, long time!

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