Texas remains covered with a tropical airmass that rests like wet cotton against the skin.  It’s sticky, oppressive, unbearable.

Consider this: With a temperature of only 80° F (27° C), our relative humidity remains above 70%.  That means the dew point is an uncomfortable 70° F (21° C).

Unfortunately, I’ve already been forced to turn on the air conditioner as means to remedy the stifling moisture.  It’s not that the temperature inside had risen too high; it’s just that sitting on the couch had become something like sitting in a steam room.  Even fans pushing the air around provided little comfort.

The only option: Turn on the cold air to compress some water out of the interior.

What we really need is for it to rain.  With a temperature inversion overhead, though, it seems that’s not as likely as it might be to the west, where warmer temperatures will erode the cap and allow some storms to develop.

And now the clouds have broken apart and allowed sunshine to start filtering through.  That’s just going to make it all the more miserable outside.

I’ll admit that, however, it’s not even summer yet, so we have a lot worse ahead of us.  Basically, take moderately high humidity levels and increase the temperature to 100° F (38° C), then put a big, lazy high pressure system right over us to keep the air from moving—at all!—and that’s what it’ll be like in a month or so, and it’ll stay that way until September.

Bah.