Spring-like winds may be here a while
BY PHIL REYNOLDS SOUTH JETTY REPORTER

Don't stake down that beach umbrella quite yet. The winds that have been sweeping across Mustang Island may die down by the weekend, according to the National Weather Service.

In fact, you may want to trade that beach umbrella for a regular umbrella.

Unofficial weather stations in Port Aransas have been showing winds averaging between 10 and 15 miles an hour this month, with gusts of more than 30 miles an hour on occasion. While relatively unusual, that's not unique, said Mike Gittinger, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service's office in Corpus Christi.

Gittinger said low pressure areas over the Great Plains cause winds in Port Aransas because air from higher pressure zones is drawn toward the low pressure. On their way from high pressure to low pressure areas, they're called "wind."

"The interaction between the (Rocky Mountains) and the jet stream creates low pressure downstream of that over the plains," Gittinger explained. "That makes it windy all the way down to South Texas. It's just normal."

Gittinger said while May is usually a breezy month for the Coastal Bend, those breezes have extended a little bit later than usual this year.

"It's been more like May, because the pattern has taken on a little more of that type of (development)," he said.

He said the water temperature also affects air movement, especially overnight.

"It stays windy overnight because the water is in the 80s," he said. "Inland, winds tend to weaken, but since we're on the coast, (the water temperature) is pushing 90 degrees, and the wind will tend to stay up."

Gittinger pointed toward the spring-like weather as a cause of nasty weather that's been occurring in the Midwest the past few days, including tornados.

"They're getting big tornado outbreaks, and it's all part of the same thing - the weather pattern is more spring-like," he said.

However, Gittinger held out hope that winds will not only die down soon, but that some much-needed moisture may be on its way.

"There's a little bit of a weak tropical wave with a pool of moisture that's going to work its way north and into the area by Saturday," he said. "It'll produce scattered showers and thunderstorms, but they'll be scattered."

Gittinger's forecast called for isolated showers and thunderstorms on Friday, June 13, with scattered showers and thunderstorms over the weekend.

After that, though, it's back to breezy weather until that low pressure area over the Great Plains decides to moderate a bit.