Texas Weather

Rain!

2009-09-11T12:36:00.005-05:00

It looks like the drought is slowly coming to an end!

2 weeks ago last Wednesday, we had 1.12" of rain. The next day, we had 0.24". Then nothing of consequence for 2 weeks. Yesterday, the rains began! We got barely 0.10", but other areas around Austin got several storms with plenty of rain.

Then this morning, we began getting rain! To the north of us, Jarrell, TX got at least 8 inches since last night, and both sides of I-35 are currently at a standstill up there! WOW!

The rain has been steadily coming down here at our house for the last 45 minutes or so. What a blessing! It's cool and humid out, which is a nice change from HOT!

Thank You, Lord!

Cumulonimbus photos!

2009-07-22T19:43:00.003-05:00

I had a nice angle for taking some cloud pictures last Sunday evening (7/19). The storm was east of us and didn't give us any rain, but the sunset colors reflecting off of it were beautiful!

Here's the photo album: July 19th, 2009 Cumulonimbus

If you'd like a full-size copy of any of these photos, just email me and tell me the number under the picture, and the email address where you'd like it sent.

Summertime!

2009-06-30T00:51:00.004-05:00

Well, summer has arrived in full force!

We have had at least a week of 100+ temps, possibly more. I haven't been keeping track! We need rain very badly. Last week at one point it was 107 degrees. Today it was "only" 105. Whew!

El Nino may be kicking back in later this summer, which could mean higher rain chances for us! Of course we know God is the One who controls all those things, including El Nino. ;)

There really isn't anything else to update on, weather-wise, so until next time....

The Science behind the Jarrell Tornado

2009-05-28T22:49:00.004-05:00

I just found this link, and thought it was very interesting! Some of it is over my head, but it doesn't hurt to try to learn new information! :)

http://blogs.kxan.com/weather/2009/05/27/the-science-behind-the-jarrell-tornado/

May 27th, 2009, came and went very quietly, with a gorgeous sunset! Unfortunately I was unable to get pictures of it myself, but you can find pictures on http://www.kxan.com, in the weather section. It's hard to believe it's been 12 years since the tornado!

I am still disappointed that we didn't even get a glimpse of the tornado! It traveled along the west side of I-35 for many miles - the storm hit our area HARD, and we ended up underneath I-35 for 2 hours as it passed by. Only we were too far south to see the tornado at that point.

You can read my account of May 27th, 1997 here: http://oliveplants.com/elisabethswebpage/jarrelltornado.html

Late Freeze!

2009-04-07T00:36:00.003-05:00

It looks like we'll be having a later-season freeze here this morning! (Tuesday) The temperature is forecast to dip to 31. Of course we had to cover all the tender plants to help protect them from being "nipped" by the frost!

March Storms!

2009-03-26T21:43:00.004-05:00

Tuesday was rather drippy, and we got only about 0.07" of rain. Wednesday had a forecast of possibly severe storms. Little did we know!

A large supercell thunderstorm moved over us around 5pm on Wednesday, bringing golf-ball-size hail! Thankfully there was very little wind, and not too much rain (0.63").

Today (Thursday), we were again threatened by severe storms, but they bypassed us on the south, and we got very little rain here at the house (0.05"). Everything has greened up considerably lately, and looks wonderful!

The hailstorm wasn't too terrible here (though it was nerve-wracking at the time!) but a lot of people in northwest Austin had windows broken in their houses, and car windshields broken or smashed! However, it wasn't near as bad as May 14th and 15th, 2008!

March Rains

2009-03-12T00:12:00.003-05:00

Yesterday began another rainy spell - We received 0.58" on Wednesday, and the rain is forecast to continue through Saturday! This has been caused by the passage of a cold front, and overunning Pacific moisture.

We're currently about 25 inches behind on our rainfall, counting the deficit from last year along with this year. It's terrible! Thankfully the local wildflowers don't seem to be too bothered. We are seeing patches of bluebonnets along the highways! I'm hoping this nice rain causes even more to sprout in the days to come.

The temperatures are the only disagreeable thing about this rain event. It has been in the 40's all day long, and won't get out of the 40's until sometime Saturday. Brrrrrrr!

Rain!

2009-02-09T21:08:00.004-06:00

The weather pattern seems to have changed just a little. We received a little over 1 inch of rain this morning!!

There is another slight chance of rain tomorrow and tomorrow evening - we will see what happens with that!

We are approximately 24 INCHES behind in rainfall, and the drought in this area has been classified as the most severe in many years.

I've been planting vegetables in my garden - I sure hope the rain keeps up so they will grow well!

Winter Storm Watch!

2009-01-26T19:53:00.003-06:00

I know it has been forever since I posted; nothing really has happened!

We have a winter storm watch for tomorrow evening. I doubt anything will come of it, but just in case....

National Weather Service Watches and Warnings

Snow!

2008-12-09T21:38:00.003-06:00

We had snow and sleet coming down for about half an hour!

It is sticking to the ground for now. So exciting! :)

I'll post pictures later on. It's COLD out right now; the thermometer says 37. That was supposed to be the low for tonight, but somehow I think it'll get a wee bit colder than that. ;) Tomorrow night is supposed to be even colder. But the rain is supposed to clear out by morning, I think. So no more snow after tonight.

Rain....at least a little bit!

2008-11-12T23:10:00.003-06:00

Well, it did rain, but not much. We got about 0.35" total over 2 days. Not great, but better than nothing!

The long range forecasts say that this winter will probably be warmer than normal. What??? I want some REALLY cold weather, so I feel like I've been through winter. ;) Actually I'd prefer to have rain rather than cold weather at this point.

November 10th, 2008

2008-11-10T18:51:00.004-06:00

The weather here is finally taking an interesting turn! We have a tornado watch just to the west of us, which may soon be re-configured to include us, too. Wow!

The cause is a cold front coming from the northwest, along with a deep layer of moisture over the state. We had a 60% chance of rain today, but really didn't get anymore than sprinkles. Hopefully we will get a few "gully washers" overnight and tomorrow! I'm excited to see some lightning and hear a few good rumbles of thunder. It's perfect sleeping weather! (As long as a tornado doesn't form up.....yikes!) 70% chance tonight.

I'm keeping an eye on the radar tonight. So far nothing really exciting has formed yet. I'll be sure to post if anything does seem to start happening!

November 6th, 2008

2008-11-06T23:28:00.003-06:00

We had our first frost on the morning of October 28th! Although I don't think it quite got down to the freezing point.

We are approximately 15 inches behind on our rain for this year. :( The rain chances we do have never materialize into anything more than a few sprinkles here and there.

One of these days (nights) we'll have our first freeze. The cold fronts come pretty regularly now and drop us into the 40's for a couple nights at a time. We haven't had a "Blue Norther" yet, but I heard a rumor of some much colder air making it down here the last week or so of November. Even though it's dry, we're still enjoying the beautiful Fall weather! :)

First Freeze?

2008-10-27T22:19:00.003-05:00

The low tonight is forecast to be 35! Will it be our first freeze? I guess we'll find out. :)

Still no sign of rain. We need it very badly. :( Although I don't like when it is chilly and wet at the same time. Still, I'd be happy with any amount of rain!

October Rain

2008-10-20T00:14:00.003-05:00

This is just for my reference.

0.87" of rain during the week of October 12th-19th.

I am such a blogging slacker! I don't even remember what day(s) it rained. Oops!

Can it be? Yes, it is!

2008-10-14T16:46:00.002-05:00

It's raining!

And today doesn't even have the highest chance of rain! I'm just a little excited. :)

I hope it washes all this ragweed out of the air. It'd be nice to not sneeze and cough the entire time I'm outdoors!

Maybe.....rain????

2008-10-03T00:58:00.002-05:00

Could it be?

I can't believe my eyes!

We have a chance of rain from Monday to Wednesday of next week. Yes, really!

I'm so excited! :)

Hurricane Ike

2008-09-13T13:56:00.003-05:00

Well, Ike is a thing of the past now. We got some breezy conditions, but not one drop of rain. :( We spent the early afternoon setting out sprinklers on the thirsty lawn.

I know it'll rain again someday.....right? ;)

Hurricane Ike

2008-09-13T00:07:00.004-05:00

Wow! This hurricane has been full of surprises! Anyone who is left on Galveston island is in very serious danger now!

I'm not sure if we're going to get any rain from Ike. We're forecast to get rain and even some tropical storm force winds, but we'll see. We did have a very pretty sunset with all the high-level clouds from the east!

This is not going to be a pleasant night for the upper Texas coast! We'll be praying for everyone's safety.

September 8th, 2008

2008-09-08T00:10:00.004-05:00

I'm keeping a close watch on Hurricane Ike. It's currently looking like the storm will at least head through the Caribbean in this direction. Of course it's much too early to tell what it will do exactly, but it's fun to try and predict it! :)

We could really use the rain. We've had to start watering our yards almost every day! I think today (Monday), we'll get the grass mowed and edged just in time for a little frontal system to blow through and give us a slight chance of rain.

Just in case you missed my last entry with the link, this is my favorite site for hurricane information! Weather Underground - Tropical

Hurricane Gustav - Changing my tune!

2008-09-01T17:53:00.002-05:00

Well, it now looks like we won't be getting much of anything out of Gustav! The storm is turning more towards the northwest and will be moving into northeast Texas tomorrow. This means that we will get some extra heat on the back side of the storm.

Still keeping my hopes up though! :) Maybe we'll get something out of Ike!

Hurricane Gustav - August 31st, 2008

2008-08-31T22:13:00.003-05:00

If you're wanting a nice website to keep track of Gustav, look no further!

The Weather Underground - Tropical

The maps are kept relatively up-to-date, which is always nice! Click on the map you want to see, and it will load a little lower on the page.

It's starting to look like we may get some rain out of this storm! I always enjoy seeing the pretty clouds that form off the edges of a hurricane. I'll take pictures if I see anything worthy!

Happy Labor Day!

August 29th, 2008

2008-08-30T00:36:00.003-05:00

I'm so glad to report we got a little over 1/2 inch of rain earlier this evening! Of course now it feels like a sauna outside, but the rain was worth it! :)

Hurricane Gustav

2008-08-27T21:46:00.006-05:00

Hey, how about this next hurricane! I'll be keeping a verrrry close eye on it!

Keep watch on the high pressure ridges over the south central and southeastern parts of the US; those can really influence the direction of these systems!

We didn't get any rain today. I think a few people around the area did, but it was dry for us. Hopefully this weekend will bring some extra rain!

August 25th, 2008

2008-08-25T21:24:00.004-05:00

Today was a good day for rain! It wasn't in the forecast for us, but the skies looked suspicious early in the day. We spent the day in south Austin where it poured down rain and thundered for about 30 minutes!

No idea how much they got, but we had about 3/4 of an inch in our rain gauge here at home plus the streets were still very damp with many puddles. The only problem is, this means I have to mow the lawn sooner rather than later. ;) (It already needed it, but today's rain will make it into a jungle overnight!)

We don't have a high probability of rain over this week, but hopefully it will continue to form up every afternoon. I sure hope the drought has broken!

(One bonus to not having a wet summer....the ragweed won't be as prolific as last year! Last year I was "sick" for about 6 weeks in September and October with various allergy symptoms! I didn't realize I was allergic to ragweed....oops!)

Third week of August, 2008

2008-08-23T19:07:00.003-05:00

I've been a real slacker with posting about our rain!

We managed to finally get some decent rain on Tuesday evening and then on Thursday evening. We collected a little over an inch for both those days!

The last couple days rain has formed SO close to us, but we haven't gotten anything beneficial. At least the grass isn't crispy now!

Not much else to report except lots of heat, as usual :)

August 18th, 2008

2008-08-19T00:00:00.003-05:00

Well, the great rain chances somehow missed us, but not by much! A small town about 30 miles southeast of us got 5 inches of rain, and so far I think we may have received 0.10". Maybe.

The skies looked very suspicious this evening so we were filled with great hope. ;) But nothing happened!

This has been a very disappointing storm system, but hopefully we'll have a better one come along soon!

Weekend of August 16th & 17th (again)

2008-08-15T23:59:00.003-05:00

We're definitely praying for rain this weekend! The rain chances have been stretched well into this coming week, so maybe we'll get some.

Our Forecast!

Weekend of August 16th & 17th

2008-08-14T00:01:00.003-05:00

Tonight on the weather report, I heard "We have a better chance of rain this weekend than we've had since May!" Of course you remember the giant storms we had in mid-May! I don't think that will happen again at this time of year, but it does look like we'll have a chance of some nice, soaking rains. :)

August 12th, 2008

2008-08-12T15:08:00.003-05:00

Well, this is disappointing!

We had a nice thick line of moderate thunderstorms headed this way from the north, and I was all excited we were finally going to get some good rain! About 10 miles to the north of us, they "poofed" and turned into plain light rain. This happens so often, it doesn't surprise me that much anymore. But it's still disappointing!

I'm convinced that there is something about the local topography that affects weather. The same thing happens so much, it's amazing!

Oh well. It will rain again someday, right? RIGHT?????

The last of Edouard

2008-08-05T20:52:00.003-05:00

Well, it doesn't look like we're going to get any significant rain from Edouard! We got some sprinkles for about an hour earlier this evening, and that's it. No wonderfully cooling rainstorms!

Unless something develops in the moisture overnight, I think we're back to the drought. :(

Tropical Depression Edouard

2008-08-05T16:36:00.003-05:00

Well, things aren't looking as promising for rain now. The radar shows plenty of green over us, but we haven't had any rain fall! I don't know if the heat is so intense that the rain is evaporating before getting to the ground, or if the radar is so sensitive that it is picking up heavy clouds as well.

The nice thing about being near a tropical system is the thick layer of clouds! It has kept the temperature at normal levels today rather than the record highs we've been having.

I'll update if we get any rain! :)

Tropical Storm Edouard

2008-08-05T10:08:00.004-05:00

Wow!
Take a look at this! I'm off to mow the front and back yard before the rain starts coming down!

(Click on whatever type of map you want to see, then scroll down a bit on the page to see it load.)

Tropical Storm Edouard

2008-08-04T20:39:00.003-05:00

Hello again!

It looks like we may be in the direct path of this next storm! The forecast calls for it to move onshore and basically move right over us, or slightly to the south. This is excellent, since the heaviest rain seems to be on the northern and eastern side!

Tomorrow night (Tuesday night) has an 80% chance of rain! I don't think I've seen that in a forecast since, oh, maybe sometime in April or May! It's very exciting! ;)

That's it for now. I'll try to remember to update sooner this time. :)

Hurricane Dolly, cont'd

2008-08-04T20:38:00.001-05:00

I forgot to mention that we got 0.80" of rain from Dolly! It was much appreciated. :)

Hurricane Dolly

2008-07-23T17:44:00.003-05:00

Dolly just moved onshore at South Padre Island, which is a little further north than the forecasters expected. This is good for us! Unfortunately Brownsville is getting completely soaked!

We have small showers beginning to pop all over our area, and hopefully we will get a good inch (or two!) in the next couple of days. The sky is looking more promising by the minute now!

Tropical Storm Dolly

2008-07-22T11:11:00.004-05:00

Well, as you've probably heard by now, there is a tropical storm threatening the lower Texas coast! There is a chance that some of the moisture will make it here, but since I just read that a ridge is supposed to develop over us and push the storm track westward, I am not as sure of rain making it here.

How's that for a long-winded sentence?

Check out the details here, on the Weather Underground!

Right now I think our best chance of good rain will be from tropical systems. We're really praying that this one helps us out! The heat is sometimes almost unbearable. We wait until almost dark to take our nightly walk, and even then we get all sticky from the leftover heat, and humidity.

Only 3 more months until we can start looking forward to 50's at night! ;)

Slacking!

2008-07-14T17:00:00.004-05:00

Well, I guess I'm falling down on the job!

We did have some nice rain two different times since I last wrote in. Unfortunately I don't remember the dates of the two showers! One gave us 0.62" of rain, which was very nice!

Today looked promising, but at the last minute, the rain just dissolved probably 10 miles to the west of us. Maybe we'll get some tomorrow! The cloud cover has provided some relief from the blazing sun, so that's the good out of missing the rain storms. :)

July 3rd, 2008

2008-07-03T15:30:00.004-05:00

The weather pattern seems to be changing slightly. We have an increased chance of rain over the next week! It's only 20%-40%, but that is so much better than the 0% we'd been having! We ended up getting 0.42" by early last Monday morning!

June 30th, 2008

2008-06-30T00:30:00.003-05:00

Well, we're finally getting some rain! I don't think it's much, but it includes lightning and thunder, and that makes it seem more like an event. ;)

There goes another rumble of thunder!

Pictures of rain

2008-06-27T15:03:00.003-05:00

I don't know about you, but looking at these pictures makes me feel better!

(June 20th, 2008)

June 20th, 2008

2008-06-21T21:46:00.003-05:00

Guess what!

It rained today! We just got 0.26 of an inch, but it really poured down for awhile, plus we had lightning and thunder. It was great! :)

We keep praying for rain....we're about 8 inches behind for the year, plus whatever amount we fell behind starting in August or September last year. Ouch!

The garden appreciated the rain. I went out to look at it while it was still warm and humid, and I could almost see it growing! ;)

If we could get 2 inches a week for about 2 months, that would be really helpful. Probably not realistic at this point, but I'll be praying for it to happen. :)

Excitement!

2008-06-19T22:10:00.003-05:00

The National Weather Service really knows how to make a forecast exciting!

Read this!

Then look at this!

Heat

2008-06-19T19:52:00.003-05:00

It was 103 today. You know how when you open the oven, a blast of hot air hits you in the face? That's how it felt today, going from indoors to the outside. WHEW!

Thunderstorms keep teasing us, moving by on the east and west of us. I remember one summer we had a terrible drought. It was so dry for so long, we were pretty discouraged. One evening after dinner, we noticed a cloud moving by on the east. It was a very dark cloud, and looked quite promising!

So we did what every self-respecting human would do when it hasn't rained for 3 entire months. We drove 45 minutes just to get in the rain! It didn't rain on our house, but it made us feel better to see that there was rain within driving distance. ;)

June 13th, 2008

2008-06-13T00:11:00.003-05:00

I know it's useless to complain about something I can't control, but it's hard!

It's 12:10am and it's 81 degrees outside.

I found out again today that waiting until evening to mow the grass does not mean the air will be cooler. Getting up early in the morning is a better idea, but I don't think the neighbors would enjoy the sound of a mower and weed-eater at 7am. Plus I am too lazy to get up at 7am unless it's for something really important. (Like choir! But in that case I get up at 6!)

Only 4 more months of hot weather! You know, I wouldn't mind the blistering heat as much if we had real winters that included that white stuff called snow..... ;)

June 11th, 2008

2008-06-10T23:54:00.003-05:00

Well, the hoped-for rain didn't last. The forecast is for heat, heat, and more heat. Did I mention it's supposed to be hot? Please pray along with us that we wouldn't have a severe drought!

If you want some rainy pictures to make you feel better about the heat, click here.

June 6th, 2008

2008-06-06T12:05:00.003-05:00

I hadn't posted anything since the weather has been non-eventful for the last couple weeks. Very HOT, and dry. We started praying for rain, because everything was really starting to look bad due to lack of water. This morning, it finally came! Praise the Lord! And more keeps developing today. :D

Now we're praying that we have regular rain all summer long, because we'd like not having to run out to water the grass every single day! :) Of course then that means I'll be mowing even more than I already am, but I would much rather mow than water.

Did you see all the terrible storms they've had in the midwest lately? WOW! Very scary. And they tend to have monster tornadoes on those flat plains, too. :(

May 27th, 2008

2008-05-27T22:44:00.005-05:00

Hopefully this post will go through!

Well, today was the 11th anniversary of the Jarrell, TX tornado! My mom and I walked out of Wal-Mart and saw a huge black cloud coming from the northeast. The rest is history! ;)

Today's forecast didn't look too promising. I was too busy to think much about it, but I did think that it would be funny if we had a storm today in the middle of this heat!

Around 6pm, my mom and I came out of Costco, and I half expected to see dark clouds. Ha ha! I didn't see any there, but as we got onto the elevated roads to come home, the northeastern sky looked "funny." Not stormy, just strange. By the time we got home, it was obvious something was happening, but we still didn't know what! A huge gust front blew through, lowering the temperature nearly 20 degrees in the span of about 5 minutes! Now that was a welcome feeling, since it had been 97 degrees! We got home, and my dad said, oh yes, there were some storms moving in.

I checked the radar. Yes, there were storms moving this way! From the northeast! Thankfully they were very benign rain showers instead of supercell thunderstorms with an F5 tornado inside!

God does have a sense of humor. ;)

Tonight we have a giant line of thunderstorms moving this way from the TX panhandle. I've seen this type of complex hold together long enough to give our area some decent rainfall in the past, so I am pretty optimistic about these! Our garden would enjoy a break from the hose water we've been feeding it lately.

test

2008-05-27T22:43:00.001-05:00

just testing, since my earlier post was eaten instead of posted.

Weather update

2008-05-26T00:57:00.003-05:00

I haven't posted because nothing has happened with the weather! It's been very quiet since the big storms 1.5 weeks ago. We're getting into a summer time weather pattern now, which means very little rain, plenty of humidity and HOT temperatures! The only chance of rain we have is if something forms in the heat of the day from gulf moisture.

It's always exciting when something unexpected pops up, but I'm not getting my hopes up! I'll have to go against my bad habit of sleeping late and start getting up at sunrise to do yard work. Otherwise I mow for 10 minutes and feel like I've been run through a wringer!

This is the first Memorial day in several years that looks like it's going to be dry! I sure hope this summer doesn't bring drought conditions. That's always so depressing!

My version of Storm Stories. ;)

2008-05-18T14:38:00.003-05:00

I don't think I ever wrote about what happened here as the storms passed over.

Wednesday evening, there was a chance of storms, but when we left the house at 5pm, there wasn't anything on the radar that I noticed. Choir practice lasted until shortly after 8:30pm, and we began our drive back home. I noticed occasional flashes of lightning in the northwest, but didn't worry too much about it. As I drove home, I turned on the XM emergency alert channel on the radio to see if there were any warnings. After listening to them for 5 minutes, all I learned was that there were "tornado watches for the southern plains." Well, that's not too helpful, really.

In the meantime as we drove towards home, the lightning became brighter and closer every minute! It also began to flash constantly, with only a few seconds break between flashes. I mentioned to my mom that I didn't like seeing increasing lightning in a storm because often tornadic storms will do that right before producing a tornado! We still didn't worry too much because after all, the marvelous technology of XM radio hadn't said there were any warnings. :)

When we got home, I immediately pulled the car into the garage. By this time, the lightning was pretty scary because it was directly overhead and constant! I ran inside and looked at the radar, while my mom turned on the TV. She called out that there was a tornado warning, and at that moment I saw the hook echo on the huge storm. YIKES! I turned off the computer immediately and we began cleaning out the coat closet for shelter. (If you haven't seen it, our coat closet is about 3 feet by 4 feet. Not much space for 3 people! But it's the only interior room in our house.)

The TV was lit up with warnings on the maps, and the weather men were excitedly talking about how bad this situation was. I got out my camera and took a video of the TV screen and the giant hook-echo'd storm that was coming straight for us. (with at least 2 confirmed funnel clouds!) Right about 9:42pm on my video, the lights went out!

So here we were, sitting in the pitch black house, with a hook echo coming straight for us. I stupidly hadn't thought of it before when we had lights, but now that we were in the dark about everything, (literally!) I sent my friend a text and asked her to pray along with us. The rain started, and then a few pieces of hail started falling. They were marble-sized mostly, but we had a few loud bumps on the roof that may have been really big pieces. I wasn't about to go outside and see! We waited and waited for a blast of wind after the hail, but it never came. As we listened to a TV station on the radio, we figured that the hook echo passed less than 2 miles from our house. But there was no wind! No huge hail to break our windows! We were so thankful to God for sparing us this time, and after seeing all the terrible tree and window damage in Austin, we were even more thankful!

So that's why I don't have exciting pictures from here at home. We didn't have anything "exciting" enough to photograph!

Thanks for reading! :)

May 14th-15th, 2008 Storm Pictures!

2008-05-16T00:35:00.002-05:00

Well, it looks like Blogger isn't going to cooperate with me loading my pictures into this post, so you'll have to go here to check them out. Sorry for the inconvenience! The album has the pictures that got posted in the body of the other post, too.

May 14th-15th, 2008 Cont'd

2008-05-16T00:34:00.000-05:00

Yet another view of the carpet of leaves at the office.
This is a skylight in the building we are using for church services. Notice all the cracks where the hail blasted it?
The entire skylight is covered in cracks!
Another view. I'm just hoping all that glass doesn't fall ON someone! Most of the westward-facing windows on the building were broken, too. Overall, at least 100 windows were broken here!

In downtown Austin, one builder reported one of his half-finished buildings had 1,800 windows broken by the hail. OUCH!

I have some videos to post too, but those will come a little later. Does anyone know what kind of software I'd need to go through digital video frame by frame? I took a couple lightning videos and would love to catch a few frames out of those!

Our power went out at approximately 9:45pm and stayed off until around 6am Thursday morning.

Now we'll see if this posts like it's supposed to.....

May 14th-15th, 2008

2008-05-15T10:11:00.004-05:00

Wow!
I have a long post to make when we get home later this afternoon. We had some real storms! I have pictures and video, too!

The short version: We had a hook echo (with confirmed funnel cloud) pass literally within about 2 miles of our house. These storms had constant lightning (very common with tornadic storms) and our power was out for 9 hours!

More later!

May 13th, 2008

2008-05-13T20:31:00.003-05:00

I think it's going to be a long night!

Radar

May 13th, 2008

2008-05-13T10:07:00.002-05:00

Well, today might be interesting! We've already had a bit of rain this morning, and there is a 60% chance for the rest of the day.

We're under the slight risk category, but parts of north TX are under a moderate risk. The risk areas could potentially be re-adjusted through the day, so we'll see what happens!

I mowed the back yard yesterday, so that's a pretty sure guarantee that it will rain. ;) Maybe I should wash the car too. Haha!

Check out the Storm Prediction Center to see the convective outlooks for today and tomorrow.

May 12th, 2008

2008-05-12T16:37:00.002-05:00

I realized I made a typo in my last post. The storm was on Saturday, May 10th, not the 11th. That's what happens when I attempt blogging while exhausted! ;)

Anyway, I posted the best of the pictures I took on Saturday evening.
May 10th, 2008 storm pictures

Tomorrow night (Tuesday) has a 70% chance of thunderstorms! In fact we have a chance of rain each day/night this week, through Thursday.

May 12th, 2008

2008-05-12T00:31:00.002-05:00

The evening of May 11th, we had a small thunderstorm move by on our south. It didn't affect us at all, except for giving us a few rumbles of thunder. I did get a LOT of good cumulonimbus pictures, though! Areas in and around Austin got a decent amount of hail, some as large as golf balls! Yikes! I guess it's a good thing that storm missed us.

I will post the pictures in an album for viewing later today. Right now I'm so tired I can barely think straight. I've been awake since 6:15am *yesterday* morning. (Choir practice starts at 8:15am before church!)

More rain is forecast for the middle of this week. I'm excited to see what happens!

May 10th, 2008

2008-05-10T18:57:00.004-05:00

Well, the storms last night just missed us. We got a nice lightning show and a few big drops of rain, but nothing very exciting. Today has been HOT and muggy, and there was still a small chance of some thunderstorms. Last night's storm did quite a bit of damage in several places where it managed to hit.

One small storm has just developed to our southwest. It seems to be expanding, but we'll see what happens. It's already thundered a few times. I love it! ;)

May 9th, 2008

2008-05-09T19:08:00.000-05:00

Storms are coming closer!

It's a race with the sun setting...hee hee!

May 9th, 2008

2008-05-09T18:38:00.003-05:00

I don't think my first post went through.

We're under a severe thunderstorm watch today! There is a 20% chance of thunderstorms, some possibly severe. Apparently anything that does develop could become severe very quickly. I'm excited! ;)

That was earlier.....now the radar shows some thunderstorms developing to our west, moving in our direction! There is a warning out for this group of storms.

It'll probably be dark if/when they arrive here. Too bad, else I would try getting some good pictures. :)

May 8th, 2008

2008-05-08T00:28:00.002-05:00

The anticipated severe weather didn't materialize for our area! It ended up being very hot and humid today. Not as hot and humid as it will be in July/August, but quite warm nonetheless.

The forecast says highs in the 90's for the rest of the week. Hello summer! And here I thought we'd be slowly easing into hotter temperatures. I guess not!

I'll post some outside pictures I took yesterday, on my other blog: WeatherAndSpace

May 6th, 2008

2008-05-07T00:54:00.002-05:00

Well, it was looking like today might bring us some more severe storms. They were forecast to develop well to our west, then move into the area in the early morning hours. It was very warm and humid outside, and "felt" stormy!

Well.....now for some reason I'm not too optimistic. What do you think?

Nationwide radar

The green that is splattered over most of TX is ground clutter as far as I can tell. The storms in west TX are fading fast. Oh well, there's always tomorrow! ;) We still haven't passed the date when our last local significant tornado occurred in 1997!

We did get 0.34" of rain on Sunday night/Monday morning, which was nice. I decided to start adding my favorite weather links to the blog, so keep an eye out for some interesting stuff!

Slightly off-topic

2008-05-04T23:00:00.002-05:00

This doesn't have anything to do with weather, but I wanted to post about it anyway!

This morning, a resident in a neighborhood about 2 miles from here took a picture of part of a very large animal. It was partially hidden by a bush, so all you can see is the tail and part of the back. It looks like a mountain lion to me! What do you think?!

Read the article and see the picture!

Now I know we've all read about how most wild animals are more afraid of us than we are of them. I'm sorry, but I've read too many stories of mountain lion attacks to be comforted by that. I'd rather be paranoid. ;) I assume that if it is a mountain lion, it is coming after the prolific herds of deer we have in our neighborhoods, along with a pet or two as a snack. Sorry, I know that's an awful thing to say. :(

Just the same, we won't be taking anymore walks after dark, and I'd advise everyone around here to keep your pets indoors as much as possible, and to not let your children play outdoors without having an eye on them at all times!

April 25th, 2008 cont'd

2008-04-25T20:06:00.003-05:00

Well, this storm is slowly sliding in this direction, and is sending down funnel clouds! It does look like it will miss us and move just to the east of our immediate area, but it is a little worrisome to have such a big storm nearby! I'm off to watch the TV weather since they are broadcasting live right now!

(and I think I just heard a roll of thunder!)

April 25th, 2008

2008-04-25T18:19:00.002-05:00

A chance of severe storms this evening! We have a large complex of storms moving SSE from the north, and they're already had a tornado warning issued for the county north of us! This storm reminds me a lot of how the Jarrell tornado storm looked as it moved in our direction. EEK!

It would be nice to get some thunderstorms while it is still daylight, so we can see what they look like. I haven't really been able to do any storm photography this year due to all our events being in the middle of the night.

I'll post an update if it looks like we'll get anything!

April 10th -11th, 2008

2008-04-13T21:49:00.002-05:00

Well, as you've probably heard by now, north Texas had some really rough weather last Wednesday night/Thursday morning, including 6 confirmed tornadoes!

We didn't get much rain (not more than about 0.40") that night/morning, but we got wind! The wind began gusting strongly late in the evening and continued into the early morning hours of Thursday. Plenty of inflow into those storms! By the time the storms reached us, the wind had stopped. Go figure! But at my aunt's house in north Texas, the wind came along with the storms! She lives in a very tiny house, and I was thankful that the wind didn't sweep them away! No tornadoes were confirmed in her area, but some of the damage we saw made me wonder. A huge branch of a tree fell not 10 feet from their bedroom, and another huge branch fell across their driveway through the woods! They called us late Thursday morning to tell us what was going on, and we decided to go up and give them some help. So we went up Thursday afternoon and came home Saturday afternoon. I didn't take any pictures, though.

The weather has been strangely cool since those storms came through! Lows in the lower 40's and highs in the upper 60's! This is below normal for this area for this time of year. I'm not complaining since it could just as easily be 90 degrees each day! Tonight the low is forecast to be 39 degrees!!! I'll have to cover all our little plants we have out in the garden! Wow!

If you find any spelling errors in this entry, please ignore them. I've been up since 6:10am, running on 5 hours' sleep. *yawn*

April 8th, 2008

2008-04-08T20:38:00.002-05:00

I'm watching the weather again tonight! The forecast doesn't call for much in the way of rain, but the thunderstorms that are popping up to our west are pretty interesting!

2 of the storms have hook echoes (See radar here) and seem to be moving in the general direction of Waco, TX! I have to say I'm glad I'm not in Waco tonight. I don't like tornado-y weather at night!

Tonight as we drove home from dinner at IHOP, we had a great view of several huge cumulonimbus clouds to the west and northwest. Too bad I didn't have my camera with me!

Pictures from March 18th, 2008

2008-04-06T22:18:00.005-05:00

I think this was the actual gust front itself. It moved across the sky pretty quickly.

Gusty winds with the gust front. Imagine that! ;)

More gust front clouds.

April 4th, 2008

2008-04-06T22:15:00.002-05:00

I forgot to write an update on the storms of April 4th! I did hear some thunder about 6:30am, and we got 0.17" of rain. It was pretty boring.

April 4th, 2008

2008-04-04T01:26:00.000-05:00

Well, there isn't much to report. We took an afternoon/evening/night trip to Dallas to hear a choir perform, and I fully expected us to be doing some driving through storms. However, we arrived home at 1am, and the (few) storms are still 50 miles or so west of Fort Worth. Oh well! I'm not even sure we're going to get any down here.

If anything happens in the night, I'll report it in the morning. Make that LATE morning! *yawn*

April 3rd, 2008

2008-04-03T12:00:00.000-05:00

We're in store for more exciting weather today! We have a slight risk for severe thunderstorms in our area. (Details here: http://www.spc.noaa.gov ) There is a moderate risk for severe thunderstorms just to our north, including the Dallas/Ft. Worth area!

I'm sorry I forgot to post pictures of our last weather "event" (which wasn't all that exciting after all!) I will do that as soon as I can. :)

I'll post an update after midnight at some point, since I won't have access to the internet this afternoon and evening. I love this time of year for just this reason!

March 18th, 2008 weather cont'd

2008-03-18T16:49:00.000-05:00

The storms passed through with lots of heavy rain, but very little lightning/thunder! I was surprised about this, due to the appearance of the storms on the radar.

The rain gauge has a little over an inch in it! I was hoping for 2-3 inches, but anything is better than nothing. There are still some wrap-around showers in west TX which could possibly move into this area, but I don't have my hopes up.

I'll post a few pictures I took of the gust front moving through and the rain starting!

March 18th, 2008 weather

2008-03-18T14:27:00.001-05:00

Hi everyone!

The big storms ended up falling apart through the night, so we didn't get the huge organized squall line. Instead today, there are many thin lines of very heavy rain moving s-l-o-w-l-y eastward over us. East TX is under the gun today and tonight for tornadoes and severe thunderstorms!

Right now, a line of thunderstorms is slowly making its way into our area. The sky is getting darker by the minute and the wind has started gusting heavily. I am just waiting for the deluge to begin! We could use 2-3 inches of rain to help bring up new grass and stop the fire danger.

Check the previously posted links for current radar pictures!

March 17th, 2008 radar pictures

2008-03-17T18:46:00.001-05:00

Check out these links for radar pictures and eventual storm reports!

National Weather Service radar

Storm Prediction Center outlooks
(The SPC also has up-to-date watches, warnings and much more!)

Tornado chasers
(Click on Live Tracker)

March 17th, 2008 storm watching!

2008-03-17T18:40:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone!

It looks like the weather is setting up to be interesting this evening over central and south central TX. It is warm and very humid outside, with a strong southeasterly wind. According to weathertap.com radar, storms are beginning to break through the atmospheric cap. They quickly turn severe, and then just as quickly disappear! The more storms that break through, the weaker the cap gets, so eventually we are supposed to have a squall line developing.

The moderate risk area was extended over our area at 4:30pm today. We'll see what happens!