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Earthquakes

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No, Texas has not begun having earthquakes. But…a couple of days ago there was a large 7.0 off the coast of Cape Mendocino, California. Needless to say with that kind of size there have been rather continuous aftershocks. And today there was a 6.1 off Adak, Alaska. Granted that area of Alaska probably isn’t receiving that much damage, it is part of the island chain off Alaska. It’s closer to Russia/Soviet Union than the body of the USA. But it’s something I note since I check USGS, United States Geological Survey, pretty much daily.

Today when I pulled it up I noted that there have been so many earthquakes we have reached 505 quakes at my reading. Since lately it has only been about half that number, I found that noteworthy. Granted, that is earthquakes that have been 2.5 and larger, over the past week. But I find it interesting that we have suddenly begun having this large earthquakes. For reference, there have also been a 5.1 in Indonesia, a 5.1 in the East Pacific Rise (ocean), and a 5.6 in El Salvador all within the past week.

Yes, the earth works on its own time.

PS – And for the record, I just checked and the weather station in my back yard says we have hit 81 at 1:22pm. Make that 83 at 3:22pm.

Fall or winter?

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The weather has changed. The past couple of day have seen a definite cold front come thru. We have actually had some cold nights/early mornings. And then some days like today its cold, we have been sitting between 40-46, shooting for a high of 46. It’s also been raining, not a hard rain, just a periodic rain. It’s made today damp and cold. Linus, my dog is only allowed on a walk if he has a sweater on. It’s not like he asks for it, but I figure is I’m cold, my dog probably is cold.

But tomorrow we should hit 62, then Monday 80 – you have got to love Texas weather. God love Texas. Tuesday we drop back down to 55 for a high and a low of 33. I’ve turned off the sprinkler system for the season. Even tho I need the lawn mowed, I’m not going to push to find someone right now. Our 10 day forecast shows us settling into the mid 60’s. So I know if we get enough rain things will grow, but there’s also a chance we won’t get too warm. If it stays cold, but we get rain, the grass won’t grow too much.

I actually got one bell pepper on my pepper plant. It’s still on the plant for the time being. It’s small, it didn’t grow to full size. But it has given me notice that growing food here won’t be like it was before. But then we were gone, and it may have gotten heat stressed. One thing I did is I put the plant in a fabric grow pot, then put that pot into a small bucket. It may not be the right size bucket but the idea was that I could water the plant before we left on a trip, and make sure there was a little bit of water in the bottom. I wanted to try to make sure the plant had enough water while we were gone. What I found was that I need to be careful where I put a plant in the yard. We don’t have much tree shade, and probably not enough shade period given the Texas heat.

Needless to say, my pepper plant didn’t do much growing. I know it had water, so I’m attributing the lack of growth to the sun and heat. It could be not enough water, always a possibility. Then again, it could be something else, or a combination of things that lead to the lack of growth.

I guess the good news is that at least its still alive.

As for the other plants in the front yard, potted flowers mainly, the caladiums have died back from the cold. I think the rose is dead, but the coleus and zinnias in the pot are still alive. The chrysanthemums are doing better since I deadheaded them. The cool weather and rain also seem to be making them happy. One of them is blooming again. I did cut the grapes back. I bought a potted jasmine which I’ve moved closer to the house to give it a better chance to survive the winter. We had cut back the cannas, and they started coming back, but I think they will die back with the cold.

One other problem I’ve been having with this weather is my eyes are dry, as is my skin. But my eyes hurt because of the weather. So it’s been warm compresses on my eyes to help my tear production. Let’s hope it helps.

Sprinkles, not rain

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I suppose you could call it rain if it’s moisture that comes down from the sky. But let’s face it, it you get less than a tenth of an inch, it’s not much precipitation. So last night was not much precipitation. We got all of 0.09 inches of rain last night. Today, and its afternoon and clouds are breaking up, we have gotten 0.22 inches, less than a quarter of an inch. Even added together it’s not much rain.

One thing of interest. This morning I noticed the recycle bin had fallen over, as if wind had pushed it over. I didn’t think much of it at the time. But this morning on Nextdoor there was a post about some straight line winds. Apparently the winds caused damage to a flea market near Belton. They were felt in the north side of Temple. I don’t know how much damage actually happened. But it does seem as if winds have occurred.

I’m noting this since I haven’t heard of straight line winds here this time of year before.

The only other good thing about our weather change today was a cold front came in. Today started with temperatures in the 70’s, but dropped into the upper 50’s. It felt good to take Linus out for a walk this morning. And this evening its expected to drop temperatures again. The forecast even has a low of mid 30’s later this week. But our days are still up in the high 70’s, even 80 degrees. So nothing quite like last year. Last year we got a lot of rain, but not this year. We could still use some rain, but when it might happen is anybody’s guess.

Let it rain

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And it is! We ate an early dinner tonight, done like 4pm, and were sitting on the covered, screened patio in the back. My boyfriend was on the phone to his daughter when the rain began as a light shower. We had gotten a little shower earlier today, all of 0.08″ of rain. Not exactly something to write home about.

As he was talking the rain became more of a more than light shower, but not what I’d call still much rain fall. When we went out it was 81 degrees outside, hot and humid. By the time it started to rain we had dropped to 77.

Than it began to rain. It began to pour. We went from 0.08″ to 2. 77″ of rain in well under an hour. The street outside is flooded, I’m sure many of the streets in town are flooded.

Are we done? I don’t think so. We are forecast to have rain for another half hour, than it should start up again tomorrow morning, early. Well, we did need rain. But I’m not sure these kind of downpours are what we would like. It will fill dams, but it is so much rain in such a short time it will lead to flooding.

Our weather is changing. Our weather patterns are changing. And not for the good.

It was only a couple of weeks ago, we were in west Texas, when Roswell, NM got flooded. People died. Roswell is desert area but they got so much rain so quickly they had flash floods. I’m hoping we don’t have that happen here. We’ll see.

UPDATE:

Rain has now hit 3.65 inches here at the house. This should be the last of the rain for today, but more rain is due tomorrow. Another problem we have is the weather. Tomorrow is due to get back up to 80, then a one day drop to 75, then back up to 80. And we’ll stay right around 80 degrees for about a week. Too hot for this time of year. The weather is not nice to us anymore.

It Rained

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It happened. The temperature dropped and we got rain. It wasn’t a lot of rain, but the other day we got half an inch of rain overnight. We got some before midnight, then rain continued after midnight. The total was 1/2 inch. That wasn’t a lot, but it was something. And they are saying more may be coming.

Today we high a high of 71, but this morning it was a low in the mid 40’s, 46 I think. A light jacket was in order walking the dog.

The forecast right now says a good chance for rain tomorrow and Friday. We’ll see what happens, but it’s nice to not have the heat.

Wicked weather

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What a wild ride. We have had wild swings of weather. Over the weekend we had hot, record breaking hot. We hit 104 on Sunday, That broke a couple of records. It was, among other things the latest day we have had triple digits in this area. It was freaking hot!

And today Wednesday we had a cold front find it’s way here. It was a lovely day to walk my dog. Right now it is 10:30pm and its all of 48 degrees outside. We hit a high of about 74 today, and we should drop down to 44 tonight. It was glorious outside today. It was cloudy a bit, overcast, then later it was clear and sunny. And tomorrow should be similar weather – still cool.

Unfortunately it won’t stay quite this nice. The forecast is for it to warm back up, but not back to recording breaking temperatures. Later this week we’ll warm back up to the 80’s, with a possible 90 the following week. But at least overall the weather is cooling down.

I’ll keep you posted on how the weather shapes up. I really do hope fall is actually here. I’d love to have a cool down of weather.

Yes, it’s been a while

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The past few months have been busy for me. Not all of it good, but busy nonetheless. Enough of me, on to the weather.

Hot. How else can I describe it. Just hot. It’s now early October and we are still sitting at 95 degree days. I admit I missed the entire month of August. I just skipped town and went on a cruise. I just didn’t want to deal with Texas heat. I’m glad I skipped town, but suffice it to say it is still hot here in central Texas.

Rumor has it we will cool down next week, but I’ll wait and see before I believe them. Trust but verify!!

Overall the weather here in the USA has been scary. The east coast has dealt with two hurricanes. One, Helene that hit the Florida coast as a Cat 4 late September. It then worked its way up to the Carolina’s wrecking havoc with rain and winds. It left power outages, flooding, property damage, etc. in its wake.

Then just the other day Hurricane Milton arrived. It didn’t go up the coast, it just crossed Florida. It entered as a Cat 3 and crossed the state. Florida has been left with power outages, severe damages, etc. I say etc. because in the couple of weeks between Helene and Milton, Florida didn’t have a chance to recover. It was in the process of recovering when Milton set it’s eyes on Florida. My guess is Milton compounded damages from Helene. I hate to say it, but it will probably take a while for Florida to recover from both storms.

Devastation abounds. Mother Nature has taken her fury out on the area. But we don’t know if she’s done, just getting warmed up, or what. Will another hurricane arrive? Nobody knows — yet.

The heat grows

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Temperatures are up to the mid 90’s. It looks like summer is settling in. Starting this weekend we may begin hitting triple digits. After all the rain we had things are still growing pretty well. Things in pots are what actually have to be watered. I have a few pots out front, and they do need watering occasionally.

The tornado was just over a month ago, it happened May 22, and I have finally gotten my roof replaced and just the other day I got my fence replaced. It’s a lovely fence. It’s treated wood, someone said it is cedar. I know it looks good. The posts are metal and facing inside toward the house. I know most people have been wondering about why I had it put in that way. Well, the other week the city (I think) sent out vehicles and men to cut down trees in the back area. There is a railroad track back there, pretty close back there. My understanding is that the railroad track will eventually be turned into a walk trail. From what I understand it used to be the Georgetown Railroad. Now it’s just an abandoned track. But because the track is behind where I live, and I understand it will become a walk track, I don’t want the posts and rails facing the track. It would make it easier for any passing kids to jump the fence into my yard. Something I’m not keen to have happen.

Nonetheless, I’m glad to have my roof fixed and my new fence installed. Many of the houses in the area still have plastic and tarps on their roofs. I know I’ve seen a lot of roofs being worked on, so they are getting fixed. But there are a lot of them still in need of work.

I’m sure these people would be happy to get there homes fixed. Hopefully it will happen soon.

Lots of news

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It’s been a while since I’ve posted and a lot has happened. We had a variety of small storms.

I had contacted my insurance about my roof from the hail storm we had May 12. They came out May 21. The result included fence damage, garage door damage, and roof damage. There was enough damage to now require a new roof.

Then May 22 came. That day will be remembered by many for a long time. I wrote a post I couldn’t post at the time. I include it below.

Thursday May 23

I’m writing this having made it thru the night.

Yesterday we had a storm blow thru Temple. I’m sure surrounding areas, including Belton got hit also.

It was mid/late afternoon and I had turned news on, maybe 5pm. At that point a storm with hail, news said 2-3” hail had been coming our way. I kept the news on. They seemed to think the storm would go north and maybe just hit north Bell county. I kept watching.

A friend called me but at that point sirens were going. I hung up with him. Those were tornado sirens. I couldn’t see anything but we were in warnings. News at that point said Morgans Point area could get hit with the storm.

A friend and I were texting each other. Her area got hit with the storm before I did, and that area got damage. But shortly after texting with her, and I mean minutes later, wind started up here. We even got more hail. And then rain.

And then the storm hit. Linus (my dog) and I hunkered down in the bedroom closet. Linus was scared, poor baby.

By the time it was over, and it didn’t take long, Temple had damage. A funnel was spotted in the north side of Temple. Roofs got torn off (I understand some got taken all the way off), windows got blown in. I hear a house collapsed and a mobile home was taken off its foundation.

By 7:30pm Linus and I went outside for a walk. Part of my back fence is down so I can’t let him out there. People in the area lost shingles, a lot of shingles, fences came down, backyard coops got thrown over fences, and I’m sure there was damage I didn’t see.

People have water in their houses due to the roof damages, and some have damage from fencing coming thru their windows. It is a bit of a mess! One neighbor said her second floor bathroom is flooded because of roof damage. I spoke with some one else, they were driving around looking for items they had lost, and they had a part of their fence blow thru their dining room/living room windows. They said they had water and glass everywhere.

But it appears we got off light. North Temple got hit as did downtown. Pignetti’s, an Italian restaurant downtown lost their roof, it caved in. I understand some houses had significant damage.

As of today, the day after the storm, some areas are still without power. I have power, just no internet. I have no tv so I don’t know if another storm is due this afternoon, though I’ve been told we have two coming. One is due around 3ish, and another later around 8pmish.

Right now as I write this, almost 1pm it is eerily still outside. Not a breath of wind.

All you hear outside are occasional emergency vehicle sirens and the sound of hammering. Roofing companies are outside putting tarps up on roofs in the area. Some started that last night.

The good news here is in this neighborhood, people may have house damage but nobody was hurt. I don’t think that’s true all around the area, but over here in this small little circle it seems to be true.

And for the record yesterday’s storm gave us 1.77 inches of rain. But this morning we got another 1.14 by 10AM.

My neighbor also has Spectrum internet, and they don’t have internet right now either. Hopefully it will come back up soon.

UPDATE: The upshot of that storm was Temple got hit by 2 tornadoes. The damage in some area is significant. Buildings have experienced total damage, some major damage. Some places have already said it will be 6 months or longer to rebuild, some may not rebuild. Houses have been turn up. Trees have been down, some with power lines over, or by them. One friend of a friend had significant outside damage. They had trees downed, an outside roof (pergola I think) demolished. Power lines we torn down. At this house a power line went down over an area of bushes, when the power was turned on the bushes burst into flames.

Many areas saw trees torn down, broken, twisted apart. Some were uprooted while others just lost branches, albeit enough branches to need to be cut down. One neighbor mentioned that a friend had a “new tree” in their back yard. A tree had been uprooted and moved due to the storm.

One hotel in Temple even had their front portico (the covered area in front of the main door, where cars drive) collapse. There has been enough damage FEMA assistance is now available within the Temple area. The lakes are now so full water needs to be released before the July 4th holiday.

Luckily we have not had a repeat of any of these storms since then.

Another day, another storm

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The much hyped storm made it here today. It was strong wind (I’m pretty sure I heard a tree branch cracking), rain (by 10pm it was 3 inches), some hail (smaller, pea sized), and of course lightning and thunder. The good news is it looks like tomorrow will not be some of the same. Tomorrow might be some rain early, but then clearing. I’m hoping for the clearing part.

Just a little side note. Due to the hail last Sunday, we have had many salesmen from roofing companies come around. There are over half a dozen signs in peoples yards advertising who will be doing their roof work. I’m in that list. The hail Sunday didn’t puncture holes in the shingles, but it did damage. My roof is one year old, but it is now damaged by hail.

Oh yea.