ASTROS VS. RAIN

The Houston Astros professional baseball team is quietly going about a milestone season this year, as the franchise that started in 1962, celebrates their 50th season. With a little over half of the 2011 season in the books, this year is turning out to be THE WORST of the 50. In the previous 49 seasons, the Astros have never hit the dreaded century mark in the loss column. The worst they have done, to this point, is 97 losses, which they've done 3 times (1965 - 1st year in the Astrodome, 1975, and 1991 - the 1st year a scrawny little kid name of Bagwell played for them). With 83 games played this year, and 79 still to be played (ugh!), the Astros (29-54, worst in the league) are on pace to lose 105 games this season.

The Astros, unfortunately, do not have exclusive rights to 2011 milestones here in the 4th largest city in America. Weather-wise, 2011 is going down as one of the driest on record in the Houston area, and much of Texas. The U.S. Drought Monitor has 5 classifications to indicate the severity of droughts, much like the Saffir-Simpson scale used to indicate the intensity of hurricanes. Southeast Texas, including the Greater Houston area, is currently in a D4 drought. That's right, it's the worst one on the scale.

In 2011, the official rain gauge at Bush Intercontinental Airport has registered 7.88 inches of rain. That's since January 1st! And 5.05 inches of that fell in the month of January. The "normal" amount of rainfall we can expect in this town by July 2nd is 24.39 inches.

How do I tie rain, or the lack of it, to the Astros? Glad you asked. The Astros season started on April 1st. In the 83 games they've played since, they have a league low 29 wins. In that same time span (since April 1st) Houston's official rain gauge has seen something wet in it on 23 days. So for the season, I guess you could say the Astros are leading rain 29-23. Granted, some of those rain days measured just a trace, but hey, in a D4 drought we'll take what we can get.

In the month of June there were 8 days the rain gauge had something in it. June also saw the Astros win just 8 games. With the immediate future of the Astros looking pretty bleak, and the drought showing no signs of letting up, I'm wondering if July may be rain's month to take it to the Astros since the weather can and usually does change, but the Astros, not so much.

QUESTION: Which will there be more of in the month of July?

                     (A) Astros wins

                     (B) days of rain

Sheesh!! When does football season start?

Oh, that's right. There may not be one.