Texas hit with storms

BlueFinch · ‎08-31-2019

Just checking on my fellow Texans. I hope there's not another thread about this. I didn't see one, but I had very little sleep last night, storm watching, so I may have missed it.

It was a rough ride last night through early morning hours, with constant warnings blasting. I had torrential rain (my rain gauge overflowed at 5"), hail (thankfully, only nickel size, mostly), lots of lightening and strong, straight line winds.

But, I fared better than many who had significant property damage, with some tornado activity, along with egg size, to baseball sized hail. Of course the flooding led to water rescues, one near my house. Ducks could still paddle in my driveway right now. The ground is too saturated to absorb.

Aside from the damages, rain was welcomed. We were in the midst of Stage II water restrictions here, dealing with drought. The last heavy rain in my area was in 2019. It seems in many parts of TX, it's feast, or famine.

Hope everyone is okay and only has mud to deal with, nothing more.

MamaWick · ‎03-09-2010

We came through fine in our part of Hill Country. Happy to hear you did, too. It was pretty wicked. Some reports of "ball lightning" in the area. I had never heard of this. Our son in San Antonio fared well, too.

My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness ~ Dalai Lama XIV

When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace ~ Jimi Hendrix

LonestarBabs · ‎06-26-2011

I'm in Dallas/Ft. Worth. Parts of the region were hammered by large hail as you described but thankfully none fell in my area. Rained during the night with more to come today, so our biggest risk now is flooding. I have a french drain around my property and it is doing its job!

beckyb1012 · ‎03-09-2010

Our East Texas weather this morning is just fog and light rain. Nothing more really is expected. I am about 80 miles from DFW.

"Live frugally, but love extravagantly."

BlueFinch · ‎08-31-2019

@MamaWick I was thinking of you (and the deer) up north from me, hoping you wouldn't have large hail. Glad you were okay.

Several years ago we had a bad storm. I was just looking out the front window, right at the moment, when ball lightening struck in middle of my driveway. I think both my feet left the floor at once. I didn't even know what it was at the time. It was amazing to see.

It was an electrical impact that made my hair stand on end, even in the house. My smoke detectors began screeching and then there was the smell of smoke.

We called the fire dept to check things out, but before they arrived I noted that the battery charger on my departed DH's motorcycle was the source of smoke. It completely ruined the charger. Crazy, huh?

The firemen checked all my walls with a devise to see any hot spots, but gave us an all clear. Needless to say, being alone now, I'm more than a little nervous when facing storms.

yellowrose · ‎03-10-2010

@beckyb1012 You must be near me. I'm 85 miles SE of DFW.

Hope everyone else that was in the storms path is OK.

BlueFinch · ‎08-31-2019

@LonestarBabs wrote:
I'm in Dallas/Ft. Worth. Parts of the region were hammered by large hail as you described but thankfully none fell in my area. Rained during the night with more to come today, so our biggest risk now is flooding. I have a french drain around my property and it is doing its job!

@LonestarBabs Every time it floods here, I tell myself to investigate french drains. Then it dries out and we're in drought again and I get complacent, like it will never flood again. You know, denial. Now is the time. I have to do something.

Icegoddess · ‎03-19-2010

@BlueFinch wrote:
@LonestarBabs wrote:
I'm in Dallas/Ft. Worth. Parts of the region were hammered by large hail as you described but thankfully none fell in my area. Rained during the night with more to come today, so our biggest risk now is flooding. I have a french drain around my property and it is doing its job!
@LonestarBabs Every time it floods here, I tell myself to investigate french drains. Then it dries out and we're in drought again and I get complacent, like it will never flood again. You know, denial. Now is the time. I have to do something.

I wouldn't expect a French drain to work if the streets are also flooded. We have one, but it's not to eliminate the possibility of flooding. We live on a hill so we don't want water flowing down and stopping against the house. Ours empties into the front yard. They had to cut the holding tank because they couldn't get through the rock even with a jackhammer, but I'm still surprised when I find the little cover popped up.