Storms
It is official now. Spring is here. Even though it is unseasonably cool the arrival of storms from the west signal the arrival of spring.
Last night we had some excitement lasting almost two hours. We have been here, in the same place, since 1979 and it has always been the same drill.
Cold fronts come in from the north and west, make their way across Texas, and sometimes bring rain to our area.
Last night a supper dupper weather cell came in from the west and made a bee line for our house. We got ready to take cover with portable radios, valuables, flashlights, and such but it was over even before it had begun.
Concerned by reports of golf ball sized hail that later was updated to baseball sized hail which finally became tea cup sized hail, we anxiously watched the sky and listened to the TV weatherman. (I refuse to call them meteorologists. First they need to prove they know something about weather).
Turned out that the sky really was not falling. We did not experience any tea cups or even mad hatters falling from the sky. We amused ourselves by watching the weatherman take an unscheduled opportunity to hold an instructional presentation on cloud rotation and if it should be clockwise or counterclockwise.
Meanwhile the emergency ham radio net RACES was reporting electrical flashes on the ground in Fort Worth in the vicinity of Beach street. Five minutes later Mr. Meteorologist was reporting a possible tornado on the ground in Fort Worth. I guess the TV station monitors the RACES net too. Not sure what took them so long to get the information out.
Half an hour later that cell was directly above us. The sky was very dark but had not acquired that monster greenish tinge that usually accompanies a tornado.
The sound of sirens all around and for the first time in a long time the sound was not coming from the TV speakers.
The wind picked up. It picked up a couple of loose leaves in the back yard but did not seem threatening. Gusts to 30 mph at best and big rain drops all over. Nice downpour but the light was getting worse since the sun had set and it was difficult to see much.
That lasted about 15 minutes. The sky got a little darker, then much lighter very suddenly. RACES reports of a possible tornado in east Garland. So the storm had passed and not so much as a twig had been removed from the trees in the heavily wooded area that marks our neighborhood.
Good. Our luck held out just as it has since 1979. Sure happy about the rain. We certainly needed that.
I understand there may be another super dupper cell arrive around the end of this weekend and another later next week. Yup, spring has arrived just like it always does.
Say, you suppose that later this week the weather guy has figured out which way the clouds should be rotating. Not sure we could survive without knowing that!