rain

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.

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.

Rain

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They predicted rain and we got it.

This weekend was not my best weekend. Saturday my dog got a grooming, but later than day began getting sick. By Sunday morning it was obvious he needed to see a vet, on a weekend, with emergency clinics the only open option. So my baby, my dog, was whisked off the the emergency vet. There he was diagnosed, and is still residing. He should be home tomorrow morning – that will be good.

But when he was taken, by a friend around 9 am, it was raining. Not too bad, but a definite rain. By the time I left the house, not quite an hour later, it was raining a bit harder. But by the time I left the vet, almost 1pm, it was a hard rain. There were alerts about flooding.

So how much rain did we get? We’ll my rain gauge said 3.44 inches. Which was interesting since it stopped raining early evening. But in the hours it rained, we got hard rain. And of course with the rain we got some cooler temperatures. That part was nice.

Today, Monday, it is cloudy, and shooting for the mid 80’s but at least no rain for today. But come tomorrow we may be back dealing with rain. Actually the rest of this week we may be dealing with rain. How much will we get? I have no clue. Will it be hard rain like yesterday? I don’t know that either. But I do know we need the rain, so I’m at least thankful for that.

Oh, and I didn’t post this yesterday, I did try. But it appears my hosting company was doing some maintenance when I was looking to post. Oh, well, at least I can tell you today what the weather was like.

Rain!

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The gods have smiled down on us. We have gotten some rain. Not a lot mind you, but we had just over an inch or rain here just the other day. And to make it nicer, the temperatures have been cooler too. And we have possibly more rain due here in the next few days (we shall see if that happens). How’s that for good weather.

The cool and wet weather has been a boon to the plants. I had some dead spots in my lawn, and the grass seed I put down has begun to sprout. Areas of my yard plants that I had trimmed, they show new growth. What passes for real autumn has begun to shows itself in the area. It’s amazing what a few degrees of cooler temperatures can do for plants. As I write this, it is mid afternoon, 82 degrees with 78% humidity (I did mention more rain).

And to make the weather even more interesting, next week, actually beginning on Sunday we should get our first real cold front. This coming Sunday, just before Halloween, we should reach a high of 75 then drop down to a cool 37 degrees. And next Monday that cold front should continue with a high of 45 and a low of 37, with Tuesday Halloween Day having a high (wait for it…….) of 51 with a low of 34!! Ladies and gentlemen, get out your coats!

Will we get trick or treater’s that night? Well, that remains to be seen. Hopefully we will get some.

The cold will not last too long. By the end of next week, the first weekend of November, we should be back to the mid 70’s for highs and lows of mid 50’s.

But this is the first signal to get ready for cold and winter. We shall see what we get this season.

Sorry weather

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You would think its October, the weather is cooling down, it should be lovely. Well – only sorta. Yes we’ve cooled down, but considering our summer heat cool is the 80’s (yes, in October). Today we had a nice 82 here at the house, with a light sprinkle early. This evening we have a cold front and have dropped down to 59 degrees. We did actually get just over half an inch of rain, 0.57 inches by my gauge. And with it a tornado watch on until midnight. Such in October 2022 in central Texas.

First frost is usually Nov 10, and at this rate I’m not sure if it will be on time. But I’m betting it might be a bit late. Though, who knows, it might happen. but we’ll see.

It’s HOT!

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I just saw my weather station register 106 degrees. We have clouds, and my weather alerts, that’s from area weather stations not my home weather station, has sent warnings about lightning strikes. So yes, we have hit hot here in the area.

The weather station is bouncing around the 104-106 mark.So we have hot, and I doubt we’ll get much cooler for a while.

UPDATE: it’s almost 4pm and it has begun sprinkling!

Okay, it rained for all of about 20 minutes. But that rain came in a variety of directions. The nice thing is the temperature dropped down to 74. In addition it was just rain (0.39 inches), some lightning and thunder, no hail. But now it is warming back up, we’re back up to mid 90’s in about an hour and a half.

RAIN!

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They’ve been saying we had rain coming in. And today was not the best of weather. It was overcast, humid, hot, not very comfortable. Even my dog didn’t want to walk.

But low and behold, at around 10:30pm it began to rain. We dropped from a high of 95 earlier today, down to a current 63 and began to rain, lightning, thunder, and hail over here.

As of right now we have 0.64 inches of rain. Looking at the radar I don’t think we’ll get much more tonight, but maybe just a little bit. But tomorrow our high should be just under 80, someplace in the high 70’s. And Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we are expected to get more thunderstorms.

Hopefully we do. We need the rain.

We got rain

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They promised we would get rain, and I have to say they delivered that yesterday. Here we got 1.59 inches of rain. It may not seem like much but it has made for some happy plants. There was no rain today, but it was good to get it the other day nonetheless. We still have a chance for more rain in the coming days, how much I’m not sure. Will it come, I’m not sure.

But we got some, and I have to say I have a happy garden.

The weather has been somewhat warm so those seeds I put out the other week have begun to sprout. And that’s why I am happy for the rain. I’m sure it helped convince the seed to sprout. Oh happy spring!