Having our boat between Clear Lake and Galveston Bay for seven years, we had long heard and witnessed the Clear Lake umbrella effect. Storms would be coming from the west or south and completely miss or slightly brush over Clear Lake. Tornadoes would be hitting League City and disappear by the time that it gets close to us which is a huge relief. Understanding the Clear Lake effect is difficult to nail down because it is not a perfect model.
Once in the summer years ago we were at a waterfront restaurant down below and we heard about massive rains and winds were moving east. As we ate our shrimp tacos and seafood, the winds began to blow along with the rain. Well our Clear Lake umbrella sprang a leak. The gracious manager allowed the whole crew (you know who I mean) to go upstairs indoors and hide out from the storm and finish our lunch. Good thing that we train our crew to be good restaurant patrons down under the table which is no big deal for them. Sadly that establishment no longer allows our other crew members to go with us, so we barely go anymore.
Well I searched the weather research sites, and could find no study to back up the Clear Lake umbrella theory. But it happens too many times in the past seven years to be completely random. There has to be a reason or science explanation behind it. Now it can rain in Gaveston Bay and completely miss us so it is not the cooling effect of the water to the air. I am still looking into it and will update this post when I find our answers.
Factors affecting Rainfall Amounts and Distribution in Tropical Cyclones from NWS seminar
- Size ( bigger storms = more rain)
- Motion (slower storm = more rain)
- Rain rate (higher rain rate = more rain)
- Vertical wind shear (more rain over area)
- Topography (more rain over higher elevation along the coast)
- Pressure (big drop in barometric pressure = more rain and storms)
Understanding the Jetstream in the troposphere is an excellent website explaining what is the jetstream and how it affects us.
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