storms

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.

Rain

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By my last check of the rain gauge last night, we had 3.35 inches of rain. This morning we had clocked an additional 0.83. So our total for last night is over 4 inches of rain.

Today, we haven’t had any rain. Right now, in the early evening, the sky outside is blue and lovely. Tonight we are not due for rain, though that is always subject to change. But tomorrow we have about a 40% chance of rain. Friday and Saturday we have 84 and 90 percent chance of rain. So we will have wet days ahead. By Sunday the chance of rain will fall to about 25%.

The nice thing of course with this chance of rain, is that our temperatures will fall also. Friday our high will be just below 80, with the lows in the mid 60’s. Hopefully this means we have begun the cooler days and nights of Autumn.

And with that cool down we begin the next growing season. Welcome to the growing reality of Central Texas.

Weather?

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Okay, this is a slightly different posting. I’m actually posting from an airport, DFW (Dallas/Fort Worth) to be precise. I’m on my way to CA for a few days, not exactly a fun trip, but a necessary trip.

But I’m posting this for a reason. For some reason my flight has been delayed, for 2 hours. This delay has meant I will miss my connecting flight. I’ve had to rebook the various legs to get me to CA. Why the delay? I have no clue. But I do know that when I got to the airport a number of flights were listed as delayed, some as long as 4 hours.

While on the short jaunt to DFW from Austin, I listened to others complaining. One guy mentioned his wife as on a flight due to leave at 8AM. He said it actually left at 1:45pm, over 5 hours late. Another guy mentioned that someone he knew was on a flight that had to be rerouted to Oklahoma City for refueling. It seemed that wherever they were going they couldn’t land and had to circle. They circled so long they had to reroute in order to refuel.

As I sat in a restaurant grabbing a bite to eat, the guy next to me said he had been on a flight. They had canceled the flight from Key West to wherever, possibly DFW. That was on Saturday, due to a storm coming in. They didn’t give him any sort of hotel nor food vouchers. He was able to beg a room from someone. It is now Monday and he still hasn’t finished his flight home. He’s hoping his 8pm flight will still occur and he will get home.

Is this all weather related? I don’t know. I do know that I wanted earlier flights in order to minimize the chance of storms here in the DFW area. And of course with the rain we had in Austin, I can watch storm clouds building over DFW. Summer storms can happen in this area, so it’s something I do think about.

Will I make it out as planned. I hope so. But what I do know is that the weather is affecting flights. Its affecting far more than just gardens.

Even though the other day my garden got 0.67 inches, the news said some areas got up to 2.5 inches of rain. And yes that did include some thunder and thunderstorms. That wasn’t just some little storm leaving sprinkles in its wake. So before you think weather is just about your garden, it can affect a lot more – flights, roads, flooding, landslides, and so much more.

Beware weather changes.

Not quite rainy week

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Texas weather is well, Texas weather. For the majority of this week they have forecast rain, at least somewhere. And then they change their mind. The good news is early this week, I think Sunday and Monday we did get rain. We got about one inch over the two days. But as of today, Thursday we haven’t had rain – at least not here at the house. But rain is in the forecast again.

Surprisingly, this weekend is Memorial Day weekend and we are not currently staring down at any major storms. This area often gets storms this weekend, and its nice that this weekend there are none in the forecast. That’s not to say we may not get rain, just not storms. We might get some rain Friday and Saturday, and a low possibility of morning rain on Monday.

Next week, the chance of rain goes up from Tuesday to Friday. Also our temperatures will only be in the mid 80’s (ONLY!). We’ve begin the slow climb to summer as our days will be in the mid 80’s and our night in the high 60’s (think 67-69). Yes this is cooler than summer in Texas. For this area of Texas summer temperatures are high 90’s to triple digits. So high 80’s is not our summer heat. Yup that’s Texas.

I’ll keep you posted on what we actually get.

Storms ahead

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Its late April and we are looking for thunderstorms and severe weather starting tonight. South west Texas, down by Del Rio, has already received baseball sized hail. This storm is heading toward San Antonio and Austin. Where I am, in Austin/Dripping Springs area, we are also waiting for storms. The temperature right now, almost 8pm, is 78 with 81% humidity. The humidity has been climbing the past short while, couple of hours, and is expected to continue climbing. They have warned that we will get rain, some estimates say 2-3 inches of rain. We shall see. But we also have a tornado watch.

We are also forecast to have rain and thunderstorms Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Sunday should be just isolated thunderstorms. But through it all we should be in the 70-80’s. This kind of warm weather with storms, heavy humidity, happens in this area. Its not the most comfortable weather, but its what we sometimes get. And yes, it can make for some uncomfortable times.

At this point, I don’t know what we’ll get for storms, rain, or weather. But then that’s the reality of living in this area.

I’ll keep you posted on what we get.