The red areas have an enhanced risk  of winds of 60 mph or stronger. Where you see hatching the forecast winds are 75 mph or stronger. In those areas, power outages are quite possible.  The yellow areas have a significant risk of 60 mph gusts with 75 mph gusts possible in the hatched areas. In South Dakota, the yellow/hatched area includes Yankton and in Nebraska it includes Norfolk and O'Neill.  The greater threat begins after 6pm. 

Kansas City Star NFL training camps have begun. And as much as we love fellow Kansan Travis Kelce, and welcome his new Missus to our state, I can't say I think much of their taste in hats. His chapeau reminds me of a famous scene in a movie about another sport (below):

Happily, the caption says it all. Predictions are that it will be a below average tropical storm season in the Atlantic. Let's hope the tropical meteorologists are correct!

While Fausto is a hurricane now, it will weaken (high confidence) to tropical storm status before reaching Hawaii. In history, just a single hurricane has struck Hawaii from the east (the bad hurricanes come from the south during El Nino years).  That said, Fausto will bring heavy rains to the islands as well as sustained 40 mph winds.  Editorial comment: I get so tired of having to correct the media's clickbait. [end]

---- This post is for Kansas voters ---- I personally dislike politics and, unless it is climate change or a political issue related to science, I generally keep it out of the blog. I am making an exception that pertains to the judicial issue on the Kansas August 4 ballot. It is vital to the future of our state.  Vote YES on electing judges. The current system is a scam  that is rigged to keep the Kansas Supreme Court (KSC) liberal regardless of the wishes of Kansas voters.  Here's how the scam works: Under the current Kansas Constitution, the extremely liberal bar association nominates three people when an opening occurs on the KSC. The governor, regardless of whether they are Republican or Democrat must  choose from those three and only those three. So, even if the voters overwhelmingly put a Republican in office, he or she must choose from the three liberal nominees! When there is a Republican governor, the justices often delay retirements, etc., to prevent a Repu...

S  = tropical storm.   D  = tropical depression. Amber is the radius of tropical storm force winds (40 mph or stronger).  The Hurricane Center is moved its forecast for Bertha back into southern Texas. I'm concerned about heavy rain potential if it stalls in that area.  Otherwise, this is a disorganized tropical storm with 50 mph winds. It is forecast to weaken from this point, onward. 

NOAA You may have noticed several recent articles in which "science" supposedly attributed specific floods and wildfires (which were mostly started by arsonists) to climate change.  Single event attribution is meteorological voodoo . Nothing more.  If it was necessary to have climate change "boost" major storms the following could not have occurred. "Worst" was determined by the intensity of the event.  1871. Worst wildfire in the history of the United States. 1925. The worst tornado in the United States (and probably the world) in recorded history. 1927. The worst flood in the history of the United States.  1935. The worst hurricane in the history of the United States.  1930's. The worst drought and heatwave in the history of the United States.  Climate science says human-affected global warming began about 1958. All of these terrible events occurred without global warming's help.   Clarification:  1958 is intended to show the era it began, not ...