I found an article written by British climate scientists last year that predicted 2009 to be one of the hottest years on record. They are being proved right.
For a lot of us that prediction is has been deadly accurate. The grass between Houston and Austin was a dead stiff brown color. I drove past corn fields in the Wharton area that were burned by the sun. Only the fields that were irrigated were green.
These increasing temperatures are creating a major water shortage and increasing everyone's energy costs.
We put solar security film on a house in Ft. Bend last week. Before adding the film I took a reading of the sun coming through the windows. At 10 a.m. I was getting readings of 165 BTU's! They had walls of glass; all of it was HOT.
Our film cut out 70% of that heat coming in that you then have to burn electricity to air condition. So they got hurricane and burglar protection as well as relief from the solar heat.
On the way back from a Austin trade show yesterday, I stopped at a place in Wharton where the owner was as worried about UV rays as Hurricanes. He is a cancer survivor. Getting 99% of nasty UV radiation screened out of his house appealed to him. He also wanted burglar protection and solar heat relief.
Today I found an article in the Houston Chronicle paper discussing a "hybrid" La Nina/El Nino in the Pacific Ocean that scientists believe will generate even stronger hurricanes in the Atlantic this year. I couldn't find the same article online or I would have provided a link. Our buildings are not ready for ordinary Hurricanes much less "stronger" ones.
Our peak month for storms is September. All the big ones seem to show up then. Preparedness is still the word. Are you ready to shelter in place?
It's too late to call when they have formed and are rolling towards the coast. The lucky ones will be the ones who have already got it on their house or office...
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