Storms They Are a Coming - Again & Again & Again

I love rain and thunder; but man Dallas has just been getting more than it's fair share of bad weather of late. From harsh rain and high winds, to flash floods and huge hail. For about a month now Dallas has been living up to the phrase, "Spring Storms." During the last storm there was so much hail in some areas it looked as though it had snowed. The time before that the weather was so bad that the whole family, dogs and all, turned our stairwell closet into a 6th bedroom; at 4:00 am in the morning.

Anyway, tonight we are going for yet another round. Not sure how bad we will get hit, there were tornadoes apparently near Fort Worth earlier; but that's not terribly unusual. So far we have been very lucky and had no real problems, either at our hours or anywhere in Wylie. I don't want to jinx us, but it shouldn't be a bad thing to acknowledge ongoing luck when it comes to bad weather in Texas.

So here we go again, and I sure we will again and again for another month or so.

Weather Outside is Frightful

That depends on, of course, who you speak to. DFW had its first run in with winter yesterday. A cold front from the North ran into a bit of precipitation from the South and by night fall the roads were icing over. In some parts of DFW, especially in the Fort Worth area the sleet started falling with the rising of the sun, which created a bit of panic across the entire metroplex.

I can't think of anything that illustrates that better than the mere fact the DART parking lot (the light rail system) in Garland was busier than usual with folks apparently wanting to try and beat the crazy traffic that comes with warnings of icy roads.

While the weather really didn't get bad in Dallas until late, a lot of companies and schools closed early and you can't fault them for being cautious with people's lives and vehicles. In fact my company closed down at lunch to make sure everyone could get home before the weather could get bad. We were also told that if schools were closed or running late, that we would also run late and open between 10 and noon. Tracy's firm decided to stay open, but then their operation is 24 hour in nature and international to boot. They did let people out though with plenty of time to get home before dark, when of course the roads typically get really bad.

Tracy and I met up at Mockingbird station around 4:30 and headed home. By the time we got to Garland station the sleet was beginning to fall. Luckily the weather really never got bad our our way, but the rest of Dallas apparently didn't fair so well. While Wylie and many of the other schools on this side of town were opening late, many more districts across DFW were closed for the whole day.

So today is starting off slow for us. Tracy and I are waiting to take Courtney to her bus stop then we too will head out to battle the roads and weather. It's cold outside to be sure, about 21 degrees, but we have no idea how bad the roads will be between here and Garland station. The good news is that we only have a 10 mile drive. Last year when we had similar conditions and I was driving to work, it took me nearly 2 hours to drive the 22 miles to my office and there was barely a patch of ice.

So while we won't be staying home sitting by the fire singing Christmas songs, we did get a bit of a break from the regular fast paced routine of daily life. It's nice actually, but of course when we get to our offices the paperwork will be waiting just the same. Oh, and I am taking off tomorrow, so I have that much more work to do. Come to think of it I won't miss the fast past, I will be knee deep in it; I still have half of my work from yesterday to do! Oh, the weather may not be frightful, but it sure is annoying!

Katrina, Rita and Now Wilma

Enough already of these angry storms tearing through the Gulf of Mexico. First there were Katrina, then there was Rita and now we have Wilma. Each one stronger than the one before. Today Wilma was announced to be the strongest Hurricane on record. The pressure of this storm weighs in at 882 mb making it an incredibly strong Category 5 hurricane with "sustained" winds of 175 mph.

For those keeping track, that is some 20 mph faster that Rita hit and Katrina weighed in a little less than that at her peak. The only good news is that it doesn't seem Wilma will make landfall anywhere at this current level of strength and the folks at the National Weather Service are saying she may only be a Category 1 hurricane when she makes landfall in Florida. It's hard to call that lucky, but it is lucky.

I believe it is worth noting that the one big difference this time around, is that Florida is last on Wilma's tour of the Gulf while the last two ladies that danced through the Gulf glided across Florida first... both as Category 1 hurricanes. I'm not sure what deal Florida made with Mother Nature.... but New Orleans should have made the same deal.

This from the Weather Channel:

It's been confirmed: Hurricane Wilma, with a pressure of 882 mb, is the most intense hurricane on record in the Atlantic Basin. Wilma, after undergoing a stunning intensification overnight, is now a catastrophic Category 5 hurricane packing sustained winds of 175 mph. The eye of the violent storm is now following a wobbling WNW track through the western Caribbean with a turn toward the NW expected within the next 24 hours.

Fluctuations in intensity are likely, but Wilma is forecast to remain an extremely dangerous Category 5 hurricane through Thursday. The projected track of the storm takes it through the Yucatan Channel into the extreme southern Gulf of Mexico Friday night. After that, Wilma is expected to come under the influence of westerly winds aloft blowing across the Gulf. That should hurl the hurricane toward the Florida Peninsula, probably the southern part of the peninsula, this weekend. Wilma is expected to be weakening by then, but weakening is a relative term and Wilma may still be a major hurricane (winds over 110 mph) when it makes landfall.

You can get regular updates about Wilma and other Hurricane events from the Weather Channel's Hurricane center. On that site you can get the latest Hurricane news about Wilma and her sisters as well as general hurricane information.

Aftermath of Katrina

As most of you probably know I work for a rooftop management company, which means that I work for a company that manages the telecommunications antennas and equipment that goes on the roofs of all kinds of buildings all over the country. One of those buildings is in New Orleans. During the weeks following Katrina and probably throughout the next several months, I have been kept busy with regards to that building. The groups that have equipment on the roof all had to get up there as quickly as possibly following the storm to asses the damage and repair their installations as best they could with limited resources.

One of those companies provided me a few photos of the destruction, not only on the roof, but in the photos you can see the flooding that occurred in New Orleans. Be sure to click on the photos and you will be able to clearly see in the background the flooded streets of New Orleans. Also notice the photos of the devastation 140 mile around winds play on roofs 50 stories up.

These photos were taken less than a week after Katrina Hit New Orleans

Rita Brings Javier

While I can't say that Rita brought Houston, Dallas or the rest of the Gulf Coast anything good, I can say that it did allow Tracy a chance to see Javier (one of her sons) for a little while. Courtney was extremely happy as well. They have always been close and even with the distance that now seperates them, they remain so.

Javier currently lives in Houston attending an automotive mechanics technical school for about 18 months. He education there had to take a short break though due to Rita's uninvited arrival in Texas. Like just about every other living soul in Houston, he "evacuated" the city, and like many of his fellow "evacuees" headed to Dallas. Many fled New Orleans for Dallas as well, in the footsteps of those that had already been evacuated to Houston who had to be "relocated" to other shelters. It goes without saying that these Hurricanes just have no regard for the disruption they cause.

Javier's trip up to Dallas, typically about a 5 hour drive took well over 12 hours and he got out early. Many folks were on the road upwards of 24 hours, so long in fact they many ran out of gas. Again, Rita just didn't seem to care about the chaos she caused, even before she came ashore.

We were happy to see Javier, whatever the circumstances. He and Courtney were able to spend some time together and Tracy was able to give her youngest son a good long hug and knowing he was safe. Oh, and we all had the opportunity to see his most recent car purchase, a 2005 Mustang; nearly identical to the Mustang Tracy traded not but six months ago. Who knows, maybe he too will eventually "upgrade" to a BMW..... nah, his a Ford man I fear.

Rita Comes Calling

I didn't write this up the other week, but as I am sure you know Hurricane Rita slammed into the coast of Texas back on the 23rd of September. She then drove up the Louisana/Texas border creating all sorts of havic and a fair amount of destruction. Dallas was supposed to have been on the tour schedule, but like Houston got very lucky. Not just becuase the storm came ashore as a category 3, but also that she veered to the east.

That isn't to say that Houston didn't get hit, but let's face it the evactuation of Houston was actually necessary in hindsight but was probably a good idea none-the-less. Who ever knows what a hurricane will do.

Of course when Rita was done with the coast she made her way North by North-East and passed right by the far east side of the Dallas metroplex... i.e. where we live. We got some decent wind with pretty good gusts, but not a drop of rain. Nothing stranger than seeing massive rain clouds swirling around at an unusually fast speed and producing no perceptable humidity and no rain.

It was a wide awaking though. Had she come ashore as a category 5 and been on the predicted track she would have crossed right over Wylie as a category 1 hurricane. Since she stuck around the area for several hours as it was, I really can't imagine what it would have been like had she had the predicted power and rain. Like I said, we got very lucky. Not everyone was so lucky.

Update: It should also be noted, that while Rita didn't cause any major damage in the Dallas area , Tracy's house suffered a bit more than most as an entire section of her backyard fence gave way to the wind. If any of you have the time and inclination, please feel free to "fix" the fence.

Ah, Hail!

Yep, that's right.... Hail and lots of it. For a while my entire drive way looked liked it had just snowed. If you have seen the photos of my driveway you know it isn't small. Eventually we had large marble size hail and some were even up to half the size of a ping-pong ball. The house seemed to fair okay, but I won't know until I can take a closser look tomorrow. The house was vibrating at one point from the amount of hail that was pouring out of the sky. So much rain has fallen that streets have given way to riverways. As I listen now the machine gun like pounding of the hail has given way to a less than gentle rain storm. A welcome change of pace. Hopefully the hail is done for now. My house, bushes and yard have sustained enough damage for one night, for one summer. Too bad I know there will be more nights like this

Weather:: Spring, Winter, Spring, Winter -- I'm Getting Dizzy

Dallas for the last week has felt more like mid to late Spring than Winter.... until this past week. Watching the latest weather update it seems that yet again the yo-yo moves and we are looking at tempatures in the low 30's. Considering we have been as high as 80 already and have been seeing an average daily temperature in the 70's the 30's will be a bit of a let down. Not the first time this year we did this a few weeks ago. Beautiful spring time weather and then boom winter reared it's chilling head. Because of this yo-yo weather I have gone from heater, to open windows, to air conditioning to heater to air conditioning to open window..... I'm getting dizzy. One night I was sitting on my new patio at 10:30 enjoying near perfect weather and the next night trying to grill dinner with a not-so-cozy winter wind tearing through my shirt. Is it too much to ask mother nature to follow a more precise schedule? On a possitive note... maybe the cold weather will kill the weeds. I won't be so lucky.