Another Sleep Disrupting Thunderstorm In The Wichita Falls Disaster Area

Last night, around three in the morning, thunder booming began, after lightning lit up the darkness. This lasted for hours, along with copious amounts of rain hitting the ground.

I was able to sleep through some of it.

The sun has been doing its daily illuminating duty for about an hour, but it still looks dark, rain is still dripping, thunder continues to boom, off and on.

Yesterday we learned, surprisingly, that Wichita County has been declared a Disaster Area due to recent rains doing damage, none of which I have eye witnessed.

I assume the current drenching is amplifying the Disaster Area into being even More Disastrous. 

Walmart will be my venue today for acquiring endorphins via high speed walking and anthropological observations...

The First Friday Of June Dawns Wet & Loud In Wichita Falls

When I opened my bedroom window blinds this morning my eyes were struck by multiple lightning bolts in the distance. So distant I heard no thunder resulting from those multiple lightning bolts.

Two hours later what you see above is the view from my kitchen window. A downpour of rain is pouring down. You can see the downpour, but you can not see that the lightning bolts have moved closer, close enough now to have the thunder sound effect arrive soon after seeing a lightning bolt.

I looked out my abode's exit a few minutes ago and saw that rain has already arrived so copiously that I am now surrounded by a moat. I suspect I will not be leaving my abode until the moat drains enough to allow a semi-dry access to my motorized motion device, which is keeping dry under the carport.

This morning's storm was not on the menu when I checked the weather forecast yesterday. This morning the weather menu had changed to suggesting some rain with possible thunderstorming might be happening this morning.

All this water will be making for some extreme humidity when blue sky and the sun return...

A Texas Sized Downpour & Lightning Strikes Keep Me From Walking Around Fosdic Lake Today

I exited my abode at noon to head to Oakland Lake Park to walk around Fosdic Lake so as to get some of my recommended daily salubrious endorphin inducing aerobic activity.

A small amount of precipitation was precipitating when I walked to my motorized vehicular transport.

As I headed west the 4 miles to Oakland Lake Park I saw lightning strikes in the distance.

The closer I got to Fosdic Lake the larger the amount of precipitation precipitating became.

By the time I got to the Oakland Lake Park eastern parking lot the rain had segued into heavy duty Texas-style downpour mode.

With lightning striking to the north of me, lightning striking to the south of me, lightning striking to the west of me.

I looked through my rain streaked windshield at Fosdic Lake, and its army of ducks, and decided it was likely not a good idea to wander around Fosdic Lake, under a bumbershoot, with lightning making random strikes.

So, on this very rare occasion, I let common sense get the better of me and bailed on dodging lightning bolts striking around Fosdic Lake.

Obviously I am now back under cover, in my abode, with the rain no longer falling. I think I am now in for the duration of the rest of today.

Lightning Damage, Downpours & Flash Flooding In Texas

I got up late after an unusually late night of firefighting. So, I skipped swimming this morning. Around noon I felt the need to escape here by going to Oakland Lake Park.

But the Oakland Lake Park Plan was quickly aborted when the sky decided to go into heavy downpour mode. I'd had enough of getting totally soaked last night and was not in the mood for more of that today.

So, I drove to the scene of last night's lightning strike. That is the wet view, through my windshield and the downpour, of the lightning damage. I was surprised that there was nothing temporarily covering the open roof. I don't know what the people on the lower two floors are doing with all that rain coming in. They seemed quite traumatized last night.

I hear rumbling in the distance. I hope the Haltom City creeks are not rising into flash flood mode.

Etcetera

North Texas has been through a hellacious storm today. Golf Ball size hail pummeled parts of the D/FW Metroplex. Areas that were spared the huge hail got hit with heavy rain and really really loud thunder. As far as I know, right now, no tornadoes were spawned.

So, during the storm I took off to go to Wal-Mart. I needed gas. But the gas station's credit card readers were not functioning, likely a casuality of the lightning. So, I drove on to Wal-Mart on an empty tank. I did my standard call to my mom whenever I get gas, or attempt to get gas. My mom kept me entertained in the Wal-Mart parking lot while I waited for the rain to let up. After what seemed hours, but was likely only minutes, I decided I would need to use my umbrella to get through the downpour and inside Wal-Mart.

I finished with my Wal-Mart foraging and made it back to my vehicle, almost dry. I then decided to call my sister in Phoenix. She lives about 5 miles from my mom and dad. When my sister answered the phone I'd forgotten why I called her. So, we chatted purposelessly while I headed back here. And then my vehicle did that stalling thing that indicates it wants gas. I'd forgotten I'd not gotten gas. I got my sister off the phone and limped into a Shell station. Where I hit the wrong button and got Plus gas at $2.98 a gallon. So, I got a gallon and stopped the hemorrhaging.

We've lost power several times during today's bad weather. The internet connection is off and on. I've got no energy to try and find any sort of pic that might illustrate the horror of today. Let us all just imagine one big oversized lightning bolt crashing down and making a really really loud noise and call it a day.