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    no chill

    Beloved Houston TV weatherman predicts our future climate after September's sizzling temps

    Ken Hoffman
    Sep 26, 2022 | 3:08 pm
    thermometer heat hot sun

    What happened to this 'fall weather' we were promised, anyway.

    Photo by Getty Images

    Last week marked the beginning of fall. It was 103 ridiculous degrees in my backyard. Record highs were threatened and broken all week in Houston.

    I watched one local weather forecaster say that Sunday, September 25 would be the last really hot day this year, and cooler autumn temperatures would start on Monday, September 26.

    His predicted high temperature for Monday: 94 degrees. I wondered, are you listening to yourself?

    Enough already with the heat. So I put Channel 2’s chief meteorologist Frank Billingsley on the hot seat for some appropriate grilling. (Editor's note: Check out our article on Billingsley's Galveston beach home for sale here.)

    CultureMap: I'm a warm weather person. It's one reason I moved to Houston in the first place. But lately it's become an oven. Is all this hot weather a bad deal?

    Frank Billingsley: It's bad because it reaffirms that we are on a warming trajectory that we've been on for a couple of decades. Weather is all about temperature, water and air. We don't ever balance out the extreme heat and the extreme weather that goes with it.

    So, get used to more tornado outbreaks across the U.S., more extreme cold in winter, and heat in summer, stronger hurricanes, and more of those 500-year floods that seem to happen every year.

    CM: Does the extreme heat affect plant and crops' growing cycles?

    FB: I'm no farmer, but I've read that one advantage of the heat is that growing seasons are actually longer, which may be a good thing. However, farmers are having to deal with drought on one hand and flooding on the other.

    CM. Does the heat affect human mood?

    FB: I think relentless heat makes us a little snappier than pleasant weather.

    CM: Does it affect the economy?

    FB: With extreme weather comes extreme damage which costs more than ever to rebuild and recover.

    CM: Does it have an effect on our personal health?

    FB: Just last week, we had two days of ozone levels that were unhealthy for everyone. I hadn't seen that in a long while. But hot, clear, calm weather conditions set the stage for ozone to form. Ozone is hard on the upper respiratory system. That's just one example.

    Certainly heat stroke and heat exhaustion can be dangerous, and there is always that horrible case of a child left in a hot car. I also heard of several dogs that died this summer in the heat.

    CM: Historically, how certain has the Cone of Uncertainty been?

    FB: Two-thirds of hurricanes end up in the Cone of Uncertainty. One of my bosses used to call the Cone of Uncertainty the "Cone of Overtime" because if we were in that cone it meant a lot of photographers were going to earn a ton of overtime!

    CM: When a hurricane is approaching, which do you trust more, the American model or the European model?

    FB: In my experience, the American model has done better with forecasting storms and their eventual track. But, they usually catch up to each other by landfall and are in pretty good agreement.

    The European model made the headlines because in 2012 it was the first to forecast Hurricane Sandy curving back to the U.S., while the American model had the storm going northeast into the Atlantic.

    But that was 10 years ago. We have new American supercomputers and are pretty darn great.

    thermometer high temperature
      
    Photo by Getty Images
    What happened to this 'fall weather' we were promised, anyway.
    news/city-life
    popular

    This Week's Hot Headlines

    Houston billionaire ranks among top U.S. landowners and more popular stories

    CultureMap Staff
    Jun 14, 2025 | 11:01 am
    HMNS Great Outdoors Gala 2022 Russell and Glenda Gordy and Red FJ Cruiser
    Photo by Jenny Antill
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    Editor's note: It's time to look back at the top Houston news of the week, including a look at one of America's top landowners. Plus, the sad closure of a pioneering steakhouse and a popular pizzeria makes plans for Houston. Get the details on our most popular stories below, then head here to plan your weekend.

    1. Houston oil-and-gas billionaire ranks among America's top 100 landowners. About one-fourth of the country’s mega-owners of private land have ties to Texas, either living here, owning land here, or both. The highest-ranked Houston-based landowner is oil-and-gas billionaire Russell Gordy.

    2. Houston's pioneering South American steakhouse will soon shutter in River Oaks. Sad news for inner loopers who are fans of plantain chips, wood-grilled steaks, and Houston’s best tres leches. The River Oaks location of South American steakhouse Churrascos will close Monday, June 16.

    3. Texas Monthly's BBQ Snob dishes on the magazine's new top 50 list. On this episode of “What’s Eric Eating,” Texas Monthly barbecue editor Daniel Vaughn joins CultureMap editor Eric Sandler to discuss the magazine’s new list of the 50 best barbecue joints in Texas.

    4. 'Famous' Bronx-based pizza chain fires up 3 Houston locations. A New York-based pizza chain has big plans for Houston. Called Singas Famous Pizza, the restaurant will soon open three locations in the area.

    Singas PizzaSingas Pizza is coming to Houston.Photo courtesy of Singas

    5. Texas slides down the list of best U.S. state economies for 2025. Texas' robust economy may be showing some cracks. Texas now ranks as the state with the eighth best economy, four spots lower than one year ago, according to a new report.

    most popular storiesbillionairesrankingsreportsclosingstexas monthlybbqpizzaopeningsreal estatehot-headlines
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