It has long been said that if you don’t like the weather in Texas just wait 20 minutes and it will change. This afternoon we are watching the weather closely as the national weather service has issued a Tornado watch for north and central Texas until 10:00 PM CST. Tornado’s, In January? Maybe Al Gore was right about the whole global warming thing….

We are watching the weather very closely this evening and into tomorrow morning as snow and freezing precipitation continue to fall across north Texas. This is the second time this year we have had snow in Dallas, and we were even fortunate enough to have a snowy Christmas. Something they say hasn’t happened in Dallas in 80 years or so. We have enabled the weather advisory system in the client portal and via the automated phone response system. Please keep us advised of your organizations operating intentions so that we may adjust your services accordingly. As TXDOT had a very slow and limited response to the icy conditions in the previous storm, service delays will most likely be experienced in this storm, updated information will be available in the client portal. Also if you need to arrange for delivery of deicing salts, sand, anti-freeze etc, please open a service ticket in the client portal.

It is not often that hurricanes form this late in the year. The latest hurricane on record to form this late in the season was an unnamed storm on November 30, 1925. It made landfall near what is today Tampa, Florida. We are counting our blessings that Ida rapidly deteriorated before making landfall. The conditions simply were not there for a strong storm to develop. I am proud to report that our clients business’ sustained little to no damage. Both will be resuming normal operations on Friday.

For just a little more then fifteen thousand dollars in expenses, we transported and secured just over a half million dollars in amusement ride equipment, supportive tools, and business instruments. Equipment, that if Ida had intensified or was left unsecured during the storm, would have been destroyed. Up to seventy five percent of that “rescue expense” is covered under negotiated insurance terms. It cannot be stressed enough that your business have a solid emergency plan and adequate coverage for any infrastructure which is immovable.

Because of the storm we have delayed the much anticipated announcements about our new products and services for 2010. You can expect those announcements to be made late next week.

CEO Michael Jordan:

For the last year and a half, the TPI team has been aggregating data from various theme parks to test out a new tracking and trending system we are developing. Our goal is to be able to create an algorithm that takes into account the weather forecast. This will allow parks to adapt and adjust staffing and park services accordingly, potentially saving parks thousands of dollars in otherwise lost revenue . This has been a five year project for TPI involving numerous parks around the country. In June of this year we started noticing weird trends in the weather data from Six Flags over Texas. Two things consistently stood out, the temperature and the weather patterns. The temperature was always eight or more degrees hotter than the surrounding area, and when it rained, storms always seemed to linger and intensify over the park. We checked and triple checked instruments, and verified temperatures using different types of thermometers and sources of radar images. The instruments weren’t wrong, there really was something weird going on.

Late one night after pouring over the data for the hundredth time, I asked myself “What has changed in the park in the last year?”. The only thing that was added was the Glow in the Park parade. And then it hit me. The audio for the parade is synced up using encoders buried in the concrete, they would have had to tear up the concrete to lay the electronics in the ground. After the install Six Flags resurfaced most of the concrete in the park with a thin layer of black tar. The color black absorbs the light energy emitted from the sun, unlike white which reflects heat. The entire park has turned into a giant convection oven, which is in turn heating up the surrounding atmosphere. When the hot air rising passes over colder air it condenses. When this happens violently it produces thunderstorms. Or in this case, intensifies ones already in the area.

The problem goes much deeper then just affecting local weather patterns. The increased temperatures could cause the park to see an increase in guest dehydration and heat exhaustion cases. This would no doubt culminate in financial losses at the ticket booths as result of increased rain days or heatwaves.