This weather is awful!! 2008-2021

[audreyh1]

This morning a nearby lightning strike caused a power surge, setting off our home alarm system and blasting us awake at 5:10 AM. Fried something in the system rendering the key pad inoperative. To finally shut it off I had to find and turn off the breaker, then get into the alarm system control box and disconnect the back-up battery. Not a recommended way to start the day.

We're currently being pounded by a series of very strong thunderstorms. Pea sized hail is clogging the rain gutters causing them to overflow.

Oh man! I saw the radar for your area and it looked real nasty. Those TX Hill Country spring storms can be very scary. Pea-sized hail is no big deal, (except for your gutters) but I've seen quarter-sized plus in your area!

A few stray showers down here, but it's warm and windy. Cloud cover keeping temps down to low 80s.

Audrey

 

[audreyh1]

Wow, here comes another one. Anyone got some Ark blueprints I can borrow?

Believe you me, Arkansas is just as bad if not worse! We spent May there last year and had some doozies including plenty of twister warnings. And Arkansas has lots of really tall trees and branches to be blown down by the wind and fall on you!.

Hail AND branches!

Audrey

 

[Nords]

Five hours of back-to-back thunderstorms and 5.75 inches in my rain gauge. Looks like we might be in for a short break but radar shows another line 10 miles away heading this way. This is crazy.

Holy cow, that puts your annual rainfall into 2011 or even 2012, right?

After the electrocution/hail threat abates, this might be a good opportunity to gather photographic evidence of Zumwalt's watershed performance plan. It'd be an awful thing for all his gravel-crushing operations to create a runoff that would poison the water table or accelerate nearby erosion, right? Gee, maybe this whole idea of his requires an EIS...

 

[ziggy29]

Four hours later we're still getting pounded by thunderstorms. They keep building on top of us, one after another, more hail and over five inches of rain so far.

They keep drifting up here, too, but they are weakening by the time they get here. The thunder is heavy, but the rain is light and the hail nonexistent this far north.

 

[REWahoo]

Believe you me, Arkansas is just as bad if not worse! We spent May there last year and had some doozies including plenty of twister warnings. And Arkansas has lots of really tall trees and branches to be blown down by the wind and fall on you!.

Hail AND branches!

Audrey

Having grown up in east TX, I certainly agree - but I was referring to Noah's Ark, not the "Regnat Populus" state.

 

[REWahoo]

After the electrocution/hail threat abates, this might be a good opportunity to gather photographic evidence of Zumwalt's watershed performance plan. It'd be an awful thing for all his gravel-crushing operations to create a runoff that would poison the water table or accelerate nearby erosion, right?

He had just begun building his water runoff containment berms when the last rainstorm occurred (see below). That one was only 4 or 5 inches -can't wait to see what the runoff looks like after this one!

Seven inches and still pouring...

 

[bbbamI]

Seven inches and still pouring...

It looks like y'all could get ten inches....

 

[W2R]

Your situation reminds me of how very fortunate we are in living 150 miles inland and near the top of a hill....

Seven inches and still pouring...

It looks like y'all could get ten inches....

Sounds like a GREAT day to stay home, REWahoo. Please do! We'll do our best to provide some entertaining discussion, obvious spammers to torment, and more for your reading pleasure.

 

[ziggy29]

Sounds like a GREAT day to stay home, REWahoo. Please do! We'll do our best to provide some entertaining discussion, obvious spammers to torment, and more for your reading pleasure.

All we need now is an infestation of insurance salesmen and we'll be set.... oh wait....

 

[Alan]

Sounds like a GREAT day to stay home, REWahoo. Please do! We'll do our best to provide some entertaining discussion, obvious spammers to torment, and more for your reading pleasure.

Having just decided to stay indoors today because of the weather here in Colorado I read these posts of the weather REWahoo is having and I feel such a whimp

 

[REWahoo]

I sincerely appreciate your efforts to keep me entertained while I wait out these storms. How about throwing in an annuity salesman for old times sake?

I got tired of having to reboot my computer after all the power interruptions and cranked up my laptop. It's still coming down and the news folks are reporting more than 10 inches have fallen five miles to my west - I've only had 7.5 so far.

Some poor guy has been stranded on top of his truck in a low water crossing for more than three hours. Rescuers have been unable to get to him by conventional methods and are waiting for a break in the storm to bring in a helicopter to get him out.

 

[W2R]

I sincerely appreciate your efforts to keep me entertained while I wait out these storms. How about throwing in an annuity salesman for old times sake?

Gosh, y'know they are so hard to find.

I got tired of having to reboot my computer after all the power interruptions and cranked up my laptop. It's still coming down and the news folks are reporting more than 10 inches have fallen five miles to my west - I've only had 7.5 so far.

"Only" 7.5 inches? That is amazing. Better start working on that Ark. Or, at least gathering animals two by two.

Some poor guy has been stranded on top of his truck in a low water crossing for more than three hours. Rescuers have been unable to get to him by conventional methods and are waiting for a break in the storm to bring in a helicopter to get him out.

Good thing you didn't go out. Sounds like that poor guy is in a real pickle.

 

[ziggy29]

"Only" 7.5 inches? That is amazing. Better start working on that Ark. Or, at least gathering animals two by two.

You'd better leave the mosquitoes. And the fire ants. And the scorpions and the chiggers and the rattlesnakes and...

 

[samclem]

Edits from me:

Some poor [-]guy[/-] helicopter crew has been told they have to fly in a thunderstorm to rescue some yahoo who has been stranded on top of his truck in a low water crossing for more than three hours.

Somebody should get a lifejacket to him and call it a day. It sounds like that would be safer for everyone than attempting a pickup in that weather.

 

[REWahoo]

Somebody should get a lifejacket to him and call it a day. It sounds like that would be safer for everyone than attempting a pickup in that weather.

The DPS waited another couple of hours for the weather to improve, then rescued him. I understand they flew him to a hospital where he checked out OK, then arrested him for driving past a "road closed due to high water" barrier.

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

Wow, REWahoo! That's a LOT of rain. Hope you don't have to go out in it. I would imagine your local news is going to have footage of lots of folks who did, standing on the roofs of their cars in rising water.

And what a way to awaken! I have had nightmares more pleasant than that.

Sunny and muggy, here, which is typical New Orleans in May. Hurricane season is less than three weeks away, so I am starting to think about emptying out my freezer (by not buying more frozen foods, and gradually eating what I have). There is NO WAY that I am ever going to let the beautiful refrigerator/freezer that I bought after Katrina end up stinking on the curb like the last one. Frank is thinking about where (in Springfield) we would stay in case of another long term evacuation this summer.

You ain't left yet?

 

[REWahoo]

You ain't left yet?

No need to hurry. The next hurricane to hit the Gulf Coast won't be a big deal. That coating of oil on the water's surface will choke off the storm's energy source and render it relatively toothless.

 

[audreyh1]

Well it looks like the system has moved out of your area, and now it's the Central Texas Coast getting hammered.

The tip of the system didn't quite reach down here.

That was amazing - but I remember getting that much rain in one day in Austin.

Audrey

 

[REWahoo]

Well it looks like the system has moved out of your area, and now it's the Central Texas Coast getting hammered.

Actually that is a second system that developed in West TX and blew through here last night. We got an additional half inch from that system bringing my 24 hour total to just over 8 inches.

I guess maybe our drought is finally over...

 

[freebird5825]

It's a scorching 58 degrees here, overcast, and windy. Argh.
Come on summer time...I have a convertible just raring to be driven.

NEWSFLASH: The sun just came out. Wooohoooooo

 

[W2R]

We are expecting rain, but the TV weather-guessers are saying that the storm that clobbered REWahoo should "probably" go north of us and our rain will not be heavy.

(edited at 2:25 PM to add: It's raining pretty hard with lots of thunder, and dark as night. Kind of cool, so far. )

Naturally hurricane preps are no laughing matter in New Orleans, and (just in case anyone was wondering), ours are no more or less cautious than those of others here. We haven't yet moved north or even put our houses on the market yet, because the housing market here stinks and average time on the market is ridiculous. So, Ed, we are going to wait for a year or two before selling, and hopefully there will be some recovery in that time.

Meanwhile, we can think about whether we really want to move away or not. As time passes, it is easy to hide our heads in the sand and forget 2005, and New Orleans is finally beginning to look better than it did.

No need to hurry. The next hurricane to hit the Gulf Coast won't be a big deal. That coating of oil on the water's surface will choke off the storm's energy source and render it relatively toothless.

Gee, thanks! I could only WISH....

 

[Nords]

The DPS waited another couple of hours for the weather to improve, then rescued him. I understand they flew him to a hospital where he checked out OK, then arrested him for driving past a "road closed due to high water" barrier.

The heck with the arrest, wait until they hit him with the rescue invoice.

"Stupid Tax" indeed.

 

[REWahoo]

The heck with the arrest, wait until they hit him with the rescue invoice.

"Stupid Tax" indeed.

Here is another one: Rescued Woman Arrested After Skirting High-Water Barricade

The fine for getting caught is capped at $2,000. Not sure how much the fine is for those who don't survive - like this guy back in February.

 

[RonBoyd]

Here is another one: Rescued Woman Arrested After Skirting High-Water Barricade

The fine for getting caught is capped at $2,000. Not sure how much the fine is for those who don't survive - like this guy back in February.

Colorado attracts these same people (Oh! I guess I said that in the "Cities" thread.) It is unbelievable how many people take off for a hike in the mountains in October through May dressed as if "going to the beach." Yep, the cost of several hundred searchers and equipment (yeah, we have helicopters too.) is incredible.

 

[ziggy29]

Slow-motion supercell heading our way with tornadic activity indicated. Slowest-moving one I've just about ever seen. Could get rough here in 30-60 minutes.