Weather From a Local Perspective

Cirrus clouds – these are the small wispy strands of clouds in the upper atmosphere. These clouds come in all different shapes and sizes, but most of the time they look like strands of a spider’s web or stray cotton floating in the wind.

Even though these clouds seem like nothing more than a background piece to a sunny day, they are much more important than you would think. Cirrus clouds are an important part of the weather cycle as they appear before major pressure changes or heavy storms.

You can think of these storms as the “scouts” for larger storms as they appear up to thirty six hours before a storm appears from the same direction as the storms would be coming from.

So the next time that you see these wispy little trails of clouds you now know that heavy storms or large pressure changes are on the way.

As for the upcoming weather, it is summer in central Texas which means hot and dry weather for the foreseeable future with a ten percent chance of scattered showers for the next few days.

Upcoming astronomical events include the summer solstice this Saturday, June 20, which is the longest day of the year for the northern hemisphere and the shortest day of the year for the southern hemisphere.

Thomas Borgstedte Jr. is a La Grange High School graduate and meteorology student at Texas A&M.