Tag Archives: Central Texas

Still frozen

Posted on January 17, 2007 | Comments Off on Still frozen

The power is still holding at the rancho, as the temperature nudges above freezing and the icicles hanging from the eaves and trees slowly begin to melt and drip steadily. We’re lucky, I know. Some have it much worse:

"At the First Baptist Church in McAlester, Okla., where most of the city’s 18,000 residents have lacked power for four days, residents huddled under blankets and in front of space heaters."

Chris White, a friend who lives way east of here, near Washington-on-the-Brazos, still is bird watching a big egret down at his frozen pond, but wondering where the roadrunner and the deer have gotten to. About the only movement around the rancho are kids using pieces of cardboard to slide down the nearby hill, and Mr. Boy using his baseball bat to knock ice off the naked branches of the Red Bud in the backyard. Meanwhile, meteorologist Bob Rose expects some melting today will refreeze tonight before a slow warmup begins Thursday and Friday.

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Posted in Mr. Boy, Rancho Roly Poly, Weather/Climate

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It’s Snowing!

Posted on January 16, 2007 | Comments Off on It’s Snowing!

So said Mr. Boy with a whoop. Sure enough, the white stuff is coming down in moderate-sized flakes. A rare occurance in Central Texas. Remains to be seen if it will accumulate enough to make a snowball, much less a snowman. Hasn’t been enough for a snowman since Valentine’s Day, 2004, another cause for whooping and hollering.

UPDATE  Snow briefly got heavy, with big flakes exploding into powder when they hit tree branches, but stopped after about an hour. Mr. B. out making snowballs. Brought in a chunk of ice to put in the freezer as a souvenir.  

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Ice storm part 2

Posted on January 15, 2007 | Comments Off on Ice storm part 2

Awoke to find a thin glaze of ice over most surfaces outside the house, where it is slightly below 28 degrees, but the power is still on. Front lawn was crunchy when I went out to get the paper. EMS reporting 24 collisions since 6 a.m. but no serious injuries. Meteorologist Troy Kimmel says we’ll stay below freezing for the next 24 to 48 hours, with more rain in the forecast through tomorrow morning, so the icing has just begun.

UPDATE  EMS reporting collisions up to 34 at 1 p.m., with one serious injury when a vehicle rolled down an embankment. By 5 p.m. the count is only up to 36, so people are staying home or taking it easy. Which is a good thing, because Troy and other meteorologists say the worst is yet to come.

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Ice storm looming

Posted on January 14, 2007 | Comments Off on Ice storm looming

Another warning email from Troy Kimmel, who teaches meteorology at the University of Texas. The temperature is dropping through 33 degrees in our neck of the woods and rain is moving into the Austin area.

"Radar indicates that precipitation covers much of the Hill Country and will move northeastward to overspread the IH-35 corridor counties of Williamson, Travis, and Hays Counties shortly."

I hope to be able to post a few more times before bedtime. Don’t expect any power failures before morning, if then. Could be we’ll get lucky and avoid them. Mr. Boy went to bed excited about possible snow, but that rare occurance isn’t expected until tomorrow night at the earliest.

UPDATE  At 11:40 p.m., Troy is tracking thunderstorms over Mason county, southwest of Austin. If they move in here, we could have more flooding before dawn and they might as the rain generally is moving northeast. Interesting times. 

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Nice rains

Posted on January 4, 2007 | Comments Off on Nice rains

Only about an inch in the Austin area in the past 24 hours, but the watershed of the lakes is doing much better with one and a half and a little more around the Pedernales River and almost two inches around the Llano River–with more yet to come tonight and tomorrow, although a lot of it has moved off east of Interstate 35 by now.

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Under the gun

Posted on October 18, 2006 | Comments Off on Under the gun

Severe weather developing over the next few hours as a big cold front moves across Central Texas. Meteorologist Troy Kimmel expects we’ll see some action at the Rancho. So I may be offline a while.

Troy says, "I do expect thunderstorms to develop with some thunderstorms possibly becoming severe with the primary risk being damaging straightline thunderstorm wind. A severe weather watch may be issued over the local area within the next few hours. You can see the NWS/SPC discussion and associated graphic for this mesoscale discussion [here]."

UPDATE Turned into a nice, soaking rain of half an inch to an inch and a half over much of the area. No wind damage or hail at the Rancho. 

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Dog days

Posted on July 15, 2006 | Comments Off on Dog days

The triple-digit days are upon us here in Central Texas and can be expected to remain a while, though hopefully not all the way through Labor Day as they have in the past.

But meteorologist Bob Rose of the Lower Colorado River Authority isn’t encouraging:

"…this is Texas weather in mid July and weather conditions are typically consistently hot and dry. Long-range forecasts show little change over the next week or so. Even the tropical Atlantic remains quiet, with little organized activity to speak of. Hot and mostly dry weather will continue in the near term with no significant changes expected any time soon."

Bob’s full take here. 

UPDATE Officially it was only 98 today, but there were a few backyard thermometers topping 100. National Weather Service forecasting 100s the rest of the weekend and into next week. A heat index tomorrow as high as 106. 

 

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