Showing posts with label Central Texas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Central Texas. Show all posts
Thursday, September 01, 2011
August 2011 Weather in Central Texas
A week ago tonight I had been watching the weather radar and knew we had storms in the area. When I finally started hearing thunder at my house, I knew I should get out and try for some storm photos. Henry joined me and began using his phone to track where the storm was. I was driving, heading in the direction I could see the flashes. While the radar indicated storms between Taylor and Hutto, I saw no flashes so I kept heading east and south.
Just north of Elgin, I was seeing clear enough flashes that I found a place on a country road where I could set up my camera with my window mount and be at the right angle to attempt lightning photography from the safety of my car.
I began to notice that I had a utility pole that was obstructing some of the bolts of lightning, so I began to move farther south past Elgin.
The amazing thing about these photos is that this lightning was really not close to where I was. I was just south of Elgin and these storms were at La Grange and Halletsville, many many miles away. The tops of the clouds were very tall and the lightning strong enough to be seen from 50 miles away.
According to the local weathermen, August 2011 was the hottest August ever recorded at Camp Mabry as well as the hottest month ever with an average temperature of 91.6 beating the old reacord of 88.4 in the summer of 2009. A new record for the consecutive number of 100 degree days at Camp Mabry was 27 compared with the old record of 21 days set from July 12-August 1, 2001. As of August 31, 76 days of above 100 degrees. To put this in perspective, an average summer in Austin yields only 13.5 days over 100 degrees. Last but not least, August 28 tied the all time record high of 112 degrees at Camp Mabry.
The worst drought in Texas history was between 1951 and 1956 when I was a small child. I do remember dust coming in the house under the closed windows. Throughout the state, October through June has been the driest 9 months on record. We've had very little rain since then.
On my way chasing the storms, I did drive through enough rain to have to turn on my windshield wipers for maybe 5 minutes. When we returned home, the ground was dry, but the deck was wet and the air at home gave the hint of the fragrance of rain.
I've been telling people that I'm a believer . . . I believe that the weather WILL cool down this fall. I believe that it WILL rain again. We have a cold front with possible rain this weekend. It is sad that I am thinking that 99 degrees as a high is going to feel so comfortable! I've gotten a little used to these high temps, sweating everywhere I go. But with the turning of the calendar page, I'm looking forward to the first hints of fall.
Monday, February 02, 2009
The Central Texas Drought
I tend to measure droughts by how low my pond is. While my pond is pretty low, it was much lower in the early 1990's. I knew we were short on rain, but until the last few days I did not realize how dry we are. We ate at the Oasis overlooking Lake Travis so I knew the water levels there were down as well.
Last week I saw KXAN Weatherman, Jim Spencer's Blog that notes that we are now the worst drought area in the United States. He mentions a D4 drought. So I googled and found National Drought Mitigation Center site from the University of Nebraska - Lincoln. One page has all the classification of drought with the effects that go with them. They also have a page with a US map that looks to be updated weekly with area information and forecasts.
At Sparrowfest this weekend, one of our leaders commented that we had a new level of drought - Extreme used to be the driest, but now we have "exceptional." And we are in an "exceptional" drought right now. I'm hearing that it is the driest it has been since the 1950's. For the sparrows, it means their food sources are very scarce. Last summer it was so dry that the grass did not make seeds - so most of the migrating sparrows have had to winter elsewhere this year. I grew up in the 1950's and remember the dust bowl days. There was so much dust in the air that it would find its way in under the closed windows.
Tonight we have a cold front coming in. I saw lightning in the distance to the east, but when I checked the radar, it is a long way from my house and moving the wrong direction. A cold front is coming in which is going to drop our humidity down. Our severe weather alert says that fire danger is high from the low humidity and the winds that are coming through with the cold front.
According to the weather reporter in the Galveston Daily News, the La Nina pattern that contributes to our dry conditions is also likely to bring a strong tropical storm season.
While I know that weather is always cyclical, sometimes when it is this dry, it is hard to believe that it will REALLY rain again in sufficient quantities. For some of our wildflowers it is already to late for moisture to help. However, if we could get just a little rain in the next few weeks, there are other wildflower species that would still bloom if we can just get some rain.
As for my pond, when my pond has water and the other ponds are dry, I get waterfowl in the winter. But, the bad news, when my pond gets really really low and the rains do begin, mine is one of the last to fill because there are at least two or three other ponds above it in the water channel. I'm hoping that we get more rain so my pond does not get down as low as it was 15 years ago - when there were only 2 small puddles where the springs are.
Last week I saw KXAN Weatherman, Jim Spencer's Blog that notes that we are now the worst drought area in the United States. He mentions a D4 drought. So I googled and found National Drought Mitigation Center site from the University of Nebraska - Lincoln. One page has all the classification of drought with the effects that go with them. They also have a page with a US map that looks to be updated weekly with area information and forecasts.
At Sparrowfest this weekend, one of our leaders commented that we had a new level of drought - Extreme used to be the driest, but now we have "exceptional." And we are in an "exceptional" drought right now. I'm hearing that it is the driest it has been since the 1950's. For the sparrows, it means their food sources are very scarce. Last summer it was so dry that the grass did not make seeds - so most of the migrating sparrows have had to winter elsewhere this year. I grew up in the 1950's and remember the dust bowl days. There was so much dust in the air that it would find its way in under the closed windows.
Tonight we have a cold front coming in. I saw lightning in the distance to the east, but when I checked the radar, it is a long way from my house and moving the wrong direction. A cold front is coming in which is going to drop our humidity down. Our severe weather alert says that fire danger is high from the low humidity and the winds that are coming through with the cold front.
According to the weather reporter in the Galveston Daily News, the La Nina pattern that contributes to our dry conditions is also likely to bring a strong tropical storm season.
While I know that weather is always cyclical, sometimes when it is this dry, it is hard to believe that it will REALLY rain again in sufficient quantities. For some of our wildflowers it is already to late for moisture to help. However, if we could get just a little rain in the next few weeks, there are other wildflower species that would still bloom if we can just get some rain.
As for my pond, when my pond has water and the other ponds are dry, I get waterfowl in the winter. But, the bad news, when my pond gets really really low and the rains do begin, mine is one of the last to fill because there are at least two or three other ponds above it in the water channel. I'm hoping that we get more rain so my pond does not get down as low as it was 15 years ago - when there were only 2 small puddles where the springs are.
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