It's coming up 2 a.m. in a few moments, and Mother Nature has clearly decided I don't need to get any more sleep for a while. Our house is right underneath the brightest, wettest and noisiest part of the big yellow band right now, just about in the center of this image.
One cat is hiding under the bed in the guest room, and flatly refusing to move. The other is alternately making love to my ankles in the hope that I'll provide milk or cream at this ungodly hour, or trying to climb into my lap every time there's a particularly loud roar of thunder. They go on and on, as if Someone up there were playing ten-pin bowling, and the sky over our heads was the floor of His bowling alley. It may be the middle of the night, but the constant flickering glare of lightning makes it amazingly bright outside.
No big hailstones so far, thanks be to God, and no tornadoes; but others in Texas and Oklahoma have not been so fortunate. We still have a while to go before this one rolls away to the east . . . and I wish everyone in that direction the best. Oh - and watch out for flash flooding. This one's raining, as Texans are fond of saying, like a cow pissing on a flat rock. It's very wet and soggy out there, and I daresay the Red River will be at or above flood stage in a few days, once all this water drains into it. The same can probably be said of our back yard tomorrow morning!
Keep your heads down if you're in the path of this one. It's rough, tough and nasty. I won't be going back to bed for a while.
Peter
That's North Texas/Oklahoma spring weather for you, Peter. Spent most of my life in this section of Tornado alley. Check into the Wichita Falls tornado of 1979 for historical research. Nearly lost family, my spouse has in other storms.
ReplyDeleteThe storm front that's on you will hit DFW in a bit. Last Saturday we received 2.25" of rain in less that two hours and 1,800 lightning strikes from a similar looking front.
Some younger folks might think I'm archaic for keeping an close eye on the sky and forecasts, but after a lifetime of hail and near misses, I don't think so.
Chris Nelson, you are right on the mark. I went through the Lubbock tornado of 1970. That dry line is a weather maker, and spring through fall is the time to keep your eye on the sky.
ReplyDeleteWe had a tornado warning down here a couple weeks ago, but the cloud said nope, so I didn't worry about it. NWS was being cautious.
My grandma went from Tarrant county to Greer county OK in a covered wagon. She told the story of setting up camp just north of the Red, when a cowboy happened along and told them, "See them clouds out west there? That water will be here by morning and you'll be dead." They picked up and moved on to higher ground. Sure enough, next morning where they had camped was underwater. And the Red was nearly full.
That's the price you pay for living in the Free Zone. Stay safe!
ReplyDeleteIt appears to be the same storm we are STILL hiving up here in Kansas. The weather mp says it'll continue for a while longer. I'm getting very tired of rain.
ReplyDeleteOld NFO says it just skirted around him. I hope it went around you, too.
ReplyDeleteDidn't some famous Texas politician say that if he owned Hell and Texas he would live in Hell and rent out Texas?
ReplyDeleteKinda agree with Chris Nelson. I live in North Central Florida (yes, they actually call it that, and I refuse to use the progressively socialistic name of the city and county...) and constantly check weather patterns, scan the sky, review forcasts.
ReplyDeleteLearned it from my dad.
It just makes sense. Planning long trips around the weather, checking updates, and during storm season keeping a weather eye out.
Young people just... pay attention to the wrong things. More interested in their farcebook and twitter than the weather report.
A year ago there was a prediction of big climate change in 2020 -- due to the sun.
ReplyDeleteNo sunspots.
Little magnetic flux protection from cosmic rays.
Seemed very authoritative, and even from 2015 such predictions -- new mini ice age.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/07/150709092955.htm
More recently is the prediction for 2020 starting.
I think this year is already seeing some of it.
I suggest urgent fear of mini ice age climate change, more rain & floods, tho also more drought in some places. And colder. Maybe much colder.
Made quite the racket our direction and now everything is soggy.
ReplyDeleteabout 40+ years ago my husband served the Greek Orthodox church in wichita falls a couple of years after we left a double tornado came through w.f. wreaking havoc
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