The recent cold snap reminds us that, while summer months here can seem interminably hot and muggy, from October through April, Houston's weather can vary wildly. One day we're enjoying mild seasonal temperatures; the next we're fishing our coats out of the back of the closet, and being reminded to wrap our pipes and mind our pets.
What might the next few months hold for us? And what should new Houstonians know about our brand of “winter?” We talk it over on this edition of Houston Matters, with Dr. Jim Siebert, Chief Meteorologist at FOX 26, and Dan Reilly, Warning Coordination Meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Houston/Galveston office.
Then: Predicting the weather is not an exact science. The more days you project out, the more challenging a process it can be. There are a variety of computer models forecasters use to determine how a particular front might develop, but those models sometimes disagree. We talk about forecast modeling with Istvan Szunyogh, a Professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at Texas A&M University and a leader in weather forecasting by numerical models.
Also this hour: For the last decade, Bill King has written a column on politics and public policy for the Houston Chronicle. The former two term mayor of Kemah, in Galveston County, has compiled those columns into a new book called Unapologetically Moderate: My Search for a Rational Center in American Politics. We ask King if he’s found that rational center.
And: A few weeks back Rev. Clay Lein delivered his first sermon as the new rector at St. John the Divine Episcopal Church in River Oaks. But he wasn’t always a religious man. He’s a former electrical engineer who was once a self-professed “angry atheist.” How did he find himself heading up a 4,000 strong Episcopal congregation in Houston? We find out, in the first of two conversations. (Tomorrow, we talk with someone on an opposing journey – a journalist and public speaker who studied religion, and has now written a guide to “coming out as a non-believer”).
