Hurricanes and Cyclones

Time Bomb Defused

Neil Frank & Gene Norman -- The Odd Couple

Top Five Houstonians As Hurricanes

The Sound of Ike

Can't Anyone Just Predict "Slightly Breezy And Seasonably Cool"?

Positive Pub For Mayor White

"Certain Death" Doesn't Bar Commercials

Time for the Astrodome to Step Up?

Houston Has a New Theme Song

Ten Reasons Drayton McLane Might’ve Rejected Bud Selig’s Plea to Get Out of Town

Always Look On The Bright Side Of Ike

Don't Let The Doorknob Hit You In The Ass On The Way Out, 2008 Hurricane Season

As of 12:01 a.m. today, the 2008 hurricane season is over. That doesn't mean there won't be any more hurricanes, it just means when they occur we'll be told what a surprise they are.As a practical matter, of course, Texas is largely free of hurricanes once you get into late September.But now we're r ... More >>

Katrina Housing Aid Is Ending. For Real, This Time

It seems like a long, long time ago, those crazy days when hurricanes Katrina and Rita came ashore.In Houston, we mostly felt the effects of Katrina, of course, as New Orleans evacuees came over. Some started lives here, others eventually went home.But now -- finally, some would say -- the rent assi ... More >>

Sondheim, Con Men and Certain Death

Highlights from the Blog at HOUSTONPRESS.COM

Bayousphere

Highlights from the Blog at HOUSTONPRESS.COM

Life in a Hurricane

The New Orleans sound of The Morning 40 Federation

Holy Sh--!

The most-hyped hurricane season ever is upon us

Capsule Stage Reviews: Beauty Queen of Leenane, Complete Works of William Shakespeare...Abridged, The Story of Burford, Category 5

The most-hyped hurricane season ever is upon us

Capsule Stage Reviews: Reckless, The Story of Burford, Category 5, The Wiz

The most-hyped hurricane season ever is upon us

Capsule Stage Reviews: Reckless, Steel Magnolias, The Story of Burford, Category 5, The Wiz

The most-hyped hurricane season ever is upon us

Keep Your Fingers Crossed -- Now We're Down To Only Four Predicted Hurricanes

​The pattern seems to be holding up -- in the year after getting hit by a major storm, when you're all tense and on edge for hurricane season -- you get a break.The Colorado State University storm forecasters (Motto: Why Do We Care About Hurricanes In Colorado?) have once again cut the number of p ... More >>

Capsule Stage Reviews: Steel Magnolias, The Story of Burford, Category 5, The Tamarie Cooper Show: Journey to the Center of My Brain (in 3-D)

​The pattern seems to be holding up -- in the year after getting hit by a major storm, when you're all tense and on edge for hurricane season -- you get a break.The Colorado State University storm forecasters (Motto: Why Do We Care About Hurricanes In Colorado?) have once again cut the number of p ... More >>

Capsule Stage Reviews: Steel Magnolias, The Story of Burford, Category 5, The Tamarie Cooper Show: Journey to the Center of My Brain (in 3-D)

​The pattern seems to be holding up -- in the year after getting hit by a major storm, when you're all tense and on edge for hurricane season -- you get a break.The Colorado State University storm forecasters (Motto: Why Do We Care About Hurricanes In Colorado?) have once again cut the number of p ... More >>

"Flotsam and Jetsam: Artists Respond to Hurricane Ike"

Web exclusive

Anti-Hurricane Consortium To Hold First Meeting...Just in Time for Hurricane Season

​A mere 19 months after Hurricane Ike treated the upper Texas coast like its musical namesake used to treat Tina, the Gulf Coast Community Protection and Recovery District is holding their first planning session: Galveston County is joined by Harris, Brazoria, Chambers, Jefferson and Orange c ... More >>

Hurricanes: Rice Says Ike Was Nothing

Just a fresh seabreeze compared to what could have been​Just in time for hurricane season, a group created in the wake of Ike has issued a report that should be entitled "The Bejesus, And Scaring It Out Of You."Remember Ike and how much that sucked? Destruction in Galveston, no electricity in Hous ... More >>

Hurricane Season: You Can Officially Assume The Worst

Let the worrying begin!​That weather disturbance out in the Atlantic is now considered unlikely to become Tropical Storm Alex. So we can all relax, right?No. The fact that we're even talking about a tropical disturbance there, at this point in the season, is oh so ominous, according to the experts ... More >>

Hurricanes And The Oil Spill: There's Good News And Bad News

Hurricanes would help and hurt in fighting the spill​As oil continues flowing into the Gulf the first tropical storm of the season, Blas, is rolling off the Southwest Pacific coast of Mexico and another tropical disturbance is rumbling a few hundred miles south of the gulf of Tehuantepec, we're st ... More >>

Where The Hurricanes At? Weather Guys Say They Are Coming

Despite predictions, 2010 is no 2005 for hurricanes.​Each year we are treated to a barrage of predictions from noted hurricane experts about how active a hurricane season we will have in the Atlantic basin which includes the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. This year, the predictions were rat ... More >>

10 by 10

Local playwrights show off their short works

10 by 10

Local playwrights show off their short works

Summer AND Hurricane Season Over For Houston (Unofficially, But We're Going With It)

We are NOT jinxing anything​Not to jinx anything, but it looks very much like Houston has avoided any real tropical storm experience in what was/is supposed to be the hyperactive hurricane season of 2010.When Eric Berger of the Houston Chronicle says so, that's good enough for us. And if we're ove ... More >>

Hurricane Predictions: Feds Say to Hunker Down

Rita, when it was coming for us.​The time to predict hurricane season has arrived, and -- as with Texans season previews -- what's predicted doesn't always tend to be what happens. So get your grain of salt ready. (On the other hand, severe weather has been the norm elsewhere in the U.S. rece ... More >>

Hurricane Season 2011: The Predictions

Hurricane Ike's track from all the way out in the Atlantic to the Texas coast.​Hurricane season is upon us. Just like Christmas, but with high winds and death from above instead of toys and egg nog, it creeps up on us quicker than we expect and, before we know it, we're knee deep in a disaster ... More >>

The Five Worst Tropical Weather Events in Houston History

The hurricane that hit Galveston in 1915 didn't have a name, but it left a mark.​Houston and Galveston, like any cities along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts of the U.S., are always vulnerable to tropical weather. The scariest of these events is most definitely the hurricane, with its fierce wind ... More >>

App of the Week: Three Hurricane Tracking Apps Just in Time for Hurricane Season

Hurricane is about as good as it gets for tracking storms on your phone.​App: Hurricane Platforms: iPhone Web site: Apple Link Cost: $3.99 App: iHurricane HD Platforms: iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile Web site: Download Link Cost: $2.99 App: Hurricane Tracker Platforms: iPhone Web ... More >>

Comment of the Day: Remembering Hurricanes Alicia and Claudette

​We have some great commenters here on Hair Balls, and it's time we paid some damn attention to them. So we'll be highlighting a Comment of the Day each morning, from the previous day's work. Maybe two comments, even. This will all be determined by a highly rigorous scientific formula involv ... More >>

This Hurricane Season, Stock Up the Right Way

Hey, Hurricane Ike Bear; quit dicking around and go buy some bottled water.​Weather agencies across the nation are predicting a much busier hurricane season this year than usual. NOAA predicts up to 10 hurricanes between now and November, with three to six of those being major hurricanes. Rem ... More >>

App of the Week: Top Nine Websites for Hurricane Season

Literally, the weather authority when it comes to hurricanes, it's hard to beat the NHC.​I swear that after this post, I will stop talking about weather apps and websites for a while, but since it is hurricane season here on the Gulf Coast, I figured one more post won't hurt anybody and it mig ... More >>

Run for Your Lives: Five Questions to Ask When You Are Considering Evacuating for a Hurricane

​It's almost July and we have our first Atlantic storm of the season in Tropical Storm Arlene. Fortunately, it doesn't appear that Arlene will grow larger than a minimal hurricane, if that, before it makes landfall along the Mexican gulf coast. Unfortunately, it won't come close enough to us ... More >>

Hurricane Update: The Calm Before the Storm?

Let's hope not.​This year has brought record droughts, killer tornados and devastating flooding, yet our hurricane season has yet to rev up. This may cause some to believe we could be spared from substantial tropical activity this year. Don't believe it. What may seem like a quiet tropical At ... More >>

Dandy Don? Tropical Storm Could Bring Drought Relief This Weekend

Courtesy Weather UndergroundSee that little cloud mass by the Yucatan Peninsula...that's our boy!​Remember a couple weeks ago when I told you that just because it had been quiet in the tropics, that didn't mean it would stay that way? Well, I hate to say I told you so. A disturbance that will ... More >>

TS Don: And Then, Depression Set In -- Tropical Storm Could Bear Down on Texas by Friday (Updated)

Courtesy National Hurricane CenterLittle Donnie is getting bigger.​The National Hurricane Center reconnaissance plane found winds strong enough in Invest 90 to declare it the fourth tropical depression tropical storm of the 2011 hurricane season -- their next full report is at 6 p.m. As we m ... More >>

Tropical Storm Don: Will Houston See Any Effects?

Is that a cone of uncertainty in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?​As we thought, the forecast models, using the data from the National Hurricane Center reconnaissance aircraft came into fairly good agreement last night on the track of Tropical Storm Don and, unfortunately, it d ... More >>

Why It's So Hot, When It Might End and Why We Should Count Our Blessings

High pressure is like the Heat Miser but not claymation.​Polite elevator conversation usually includes something like, "How about that weather, huh?" Lately, that conversation might be more along the lines of, "Holy shit, I went outside and thought I was going to die!" Normally, summers in Hou ... More >>

The Cool Fronts, The Wild Fires and the High Pressure Shuffle

Sad drought makes The Boss sad.​With apologies to Bruce Springsteen for a weak attempt at borrowing his album title, the truth is our weather has been about as crazy and out of control as a three-hour rock show, except instead of booming speakers, girls flashing the stage and a ring of pot smo ... More >>

Drought vs. Tropical Storm: Whose Side Are You On? Take Our Poll

Careful what you wish for.​There's a 70 percent chance a tropical storm will develop in the Gulf in Mexico's Bay of Campeche. Computer models show a chance it could drift northward, strengthening and possibly becoming a large hurricane aimed at New Orleans or points east. It won't come to Te ... More >>

Bold Prediction: Nate Won't Hit Houston and Neither Will Any Other Hurricanes This Season

One of the reliable forecast models showing Nate hitting Mexico, leaving us high and dry.​I'm not much of a betting man, but if I were, I would take odds that the Texas coast, and Houston specifically, will see no hurricane landfalls in 2011. We have a pretty substantial tropical storm in Nate ... More >>

Drought Madness: Houston, You Want a Hurricane. Overwhelmingly

​It's clear the Drought of '11 has had some effect on the minds of Texans: They are actively in favor of getting hit with a tropical storm or hurricane if it will help bring about the end of the über-dry spell. Does everyone forget Ike or Allison? We asked readers if they would take a tropi ... More >>

Houston's Long Hot Dry Year: 2011 Year in Weather

Photo by Barry SigmanThat's Fort Bend county, people.​There's an old saying, "If you don't like the weather in Texas, wait." In 2011, that statement was on full display as we suffered some of the wildest weather changes the state has ever seen. In Houston, there was at least some consistency. ... More >>