Palm Beach Daily News from Palm Beach, Florida • Page A010

BLACK ioa pagelabeltag A10 Palm Beach Daily News, Sunday, October 28, 2007 MAGENTA WEATHER THE ACES ON BRIDGE Trump Fisher House receives $100,000 sented a check for $25,000 to Lois Pope on behalf of Didn't see that one coming: Low pressure let me down From Page A1 nate $100,000 to mutually agreeable charities relating to the armed forces or the American flag. As it turns out, Trump donated an extra 25 percent. Last month, he wrote a check for $100,000 to Arnold Fisher, the founder of the Disabled Veterans Life Memorial Foundation. "Both organizations do an outstanding job with respect to the care and well-being of our armed forces," Trump wrote in a letter dated Sept. 11 to Council President Richard Kleid.

"Most importantly, I think we all agree, Trump Writes checks to two veterans' groups. Fisher House, "a home away from home" for family members during their relatives' hospitalization. Then, in August, he pre- the American flag will continue to fly proudly at Mar-a-Lago." smurphy pbdailynews.com Well, we all know what happened. The cut-off low continued moving east, driving that cool front into South Florida, dropping the temperature, lowering the humidity, clearing the sky and completely blowing my forecast. Thursday turned out to be a nice fall day with temperatures in the upper 70s, the lowest humidity levels since spring and a pleasant breeze from the north.

On Friday, when the cut-off low finally moved off to the northwest, the warm, humid and wet weather did return to South Florida. Heavy rain was reported in southern Palm Beach County with Boca Raton recording nearly 4 inches of rain. Predicting the weather in Florida can be a frustrating and humbling experience. Just when you think you have a handle on thing, something unusual, like a cut-off low, comes along and blows up your forecast. Still, I will press on searching for that elusive perfect forecast and remain wary of the next cut-off low that shows up on the map.

I just knew it was going to be a lousy day. When I woke up last Thursday and looked out the window, I noticed it wasn't raining. No showers or thunderstorms. In fact, the sun was shinning with only a few high cirrus clouds floating across the sky. That's not right, I grumbled to myself.

A few minutes later, when I walked outside, I noticed it wasn't warm. No high humidity and heat. In fact, there was a cool breeze sweeping across my front yard ushering in a little taste of fall. That's not right either, I grumbled again to myself. It was supposed to be a warm, humid and very wet start to the day.

Instead, South Florida was experiencing cool, breezy and dry conditions. Something was wrong. And, without having to examine any fancy weather maps, Doppler radar or infrared satellite photographs, I knew immediately what had happened. The cut-off low had let me down. A cut-off low is a large area of low pressure that separates itself from the upper level jet stream.

It gets "cut off" and is left to wander through the atmosphere at its own speed and its own direction. For most of last week, this large cut-off low (at one point Mike Lyons is chief weather specialist at WPBF-TV. this huge low pressure system covered three states) was slowly meandering through Louisiana, Alabama and Georgia. The system would move a few hundred miles to the east, stop for a few hours, then drift west for 30 or 40 miles. It had repeated this little adventure in meteorology several times, but by Wednes day night, it appeared.

And the majority of the computer models agreed that the cutoff low was going to track to the northwest (meteorologists call this retrograding), get picked up by the jet stream and track off to the northeastern part of the country. That meant that South Florida's weather was going to continue the unusual summer-time weather pattern of above average temperatures, high humidity and thunderstorms. A cool front was located over the Tampa area, but because the cut-off low was about to retrograde to the northwest, that front would never make it to our part of the state. I felt very confident in my forecast that called for warm and humid conditions with scattered showers and thunderstorms. I even mentioned the potential for heavy downpours across our area.

By the way, I wasn't alone in this thinking. The National Weather Service was so concerned about the heavy rain meteorologists were considering a flood watch for the area. Dave Poinciana Playhouse Cabaret CeU rity Bartender Press Party Featuring Tke Douglas Rae Martini Monday October 29, 2007 6 to 8 PM at BICE Ristorante 313 V2 Worth Avenue, Palm Beach, FL 33480 For Tickets to the "Save the Playhouse Cabaret" with Cast Memhers of the Camerson Mackintosh production of "My Fair Lady" Please our wehsite at: www.PBTheaterGuild.org 3 Days Left Until the Sale Ends the Season Begins Only 313 "The Thrill That Comes Once in a Lifetime." Harold Webster Today's auction looks a little unsophisticated, but North decided that a jump to five spades (simply asking his partner to bid on if maximum) was as good a way as any to explore for slam. The lead was the club queen to dummy's king. The contract appears to depend on spades breaking, as well as one of the red suits behaving.

But declarer spotted an extra chance. After playing the three top spades, with East painlessly discarding a club, he followed up by taking the diamond ace, queen and king. Now he ruffed the diamond loser, led out the club ace, and followed up by advancing the club 10. When West covered with the jack, declarer resisted the knee-jerk impulse of ruffing, instead discarding a heart from the table. At this point he knew West had no more diamonds or trumps, and so long as West had begun with 3-5-2-3 shape, he would be forced to lead a heart and concede the rest.

This was the case today, but, of course, if West had possessed another club, declarer would simply have ruffed in dummy and taken the heart finesse, being no worse off than before. The only alternative declarer might have considered was to run the heart seven from dummy, instead of playing a third club. This line has a small chance of defensive error (if East forgets to cover), but the actual line chosen was far more likely to succeed. NORTH A A 10 8 7 8 7 2 10 8 7 4 WEST 4 3 9 6 5 9 5 9 EAST A 9 2 10 6 4 2 8 7 5 3 2 SOUTH A 6 5 A 3 A 3 A 10 6 Vulnerable: Both Dealer: South The bidding: South West North East 2 NT Pass 3 Pass 3 A Pass 5 A Pass 6 A All pass Opening lead: Club queen BID WITH THE ACES South holds: A 6 5 A 3 A 3 A 10 6 South West North East 3 Pass Pass ANSWER: You are too strong simply to bid three no-trump, so it is worth the gamble to double, planning to bid three no-trump over a minimum response in a major, and to drive to slam over any value -showing bid from partner. If partner responds four clubs, you can always get a new partner! Holiday show auditions set Auditions for children ages 5-15 will be held at 11 a.m.

Nov. 17 at the Lake Worth Playhouse, 713 Lake for roles in the third annual Lake Worth Playhouse Holiday Show, to be performed Dec. 15 and 16. The children should choose 16 bars of music. They also should have sheet music or a CD, not someone else singing.

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