Welcome to ToTG!



August 17, 2007

Here Come da Storms

(screenshot from composite reflectivity loop at NWS)

See the red spot, just to the right and beneath Borger? That's me. One ten square mile tstorm and it's parked right atop my house. (and leaky roof)



Guess this is the weather coming in from the front of Hurricane Dean. Usually afternoon tstorms blow in from the southwest, but this is coming in straight from the Gulf of Mexico, southeast.

I used to roughneck with a guy named Dean; we called him "Birdlegs" because...well... Several years later, I started dating a young woman who was married, but he hadn't been around in years and years and come to find out, it was the same guy.

"Hurricane Dean". That doesn't sound so tough, but it's wreaking havoc in the Carib.

It rained SO heavy for about two minutes a little while ago, I could barely see the houses across the street. Now the streets are flooded and the water is running at a rate I'd hate to try to wade through.

I sort of like rainy weather, unless I constantly have to work out in it, then it's not much fun, at least not slogging through the mud. That same woman I spoke of up above lived in a little apt. that had a corrugated tin roof, ugly but functional and I liked to listen to the sound of the rain when I was over there. I was a little worried about lightning hitting the metal roof though.

Ever been camping in a tent and having to stay inside it while it rained? Maybe the new nylon and composite tents are better, but back when I was a kid, the canvas types shed water pretty good, but you could see the rain seeping through and the material would turn dark with moisture. It would stay that way unless you touched it, and for some reason that would let the water wick through right at that spot.

We don't get a lot of rain in Texas, something like 16 in. avg. and I believe some areas have already doubled that amt. I will have to check the yearly rainfalls in this area, but I expect we too are above the average.

A quick peek at some more southern radars shows what looks like (in motion) a small hurricane in the middle of Texas, esp. watching the storms curl around the edge of a large circle.


2 comments:

garazon said...

Man that's some nasty weather around you brother! Been watching the news this afternoon and they've been showing the rescues from some town in Oklahoma that was flooding. Well I'm sure places there in texas have been having similar situations too with all this rain. And here we are looking to see what Dean is going to do now. Well I hope and pray it avoids the Texas coast and right now it looks it might, but you never know what these things will do! Seen them take on their own mind sometime where they end up. Well stay safe and dry my friend and let us know whats happening...

Mike said...

I think that's quite a ways away in OK; down in the southeastern corner.

I made a mistake in my post; it's not Dean that's causing this particular bit of rain, but the other tropical storm (forget its name) I think Dean is just now hitting Jamaica and the weather folks are saying it's going to be a very strong storm, winds up to 200mph or something like that. Whoah.