Looking At The Stormy Afternoon Of The First Day Of September In Texas

We are looking at the somewhat stormy view from Miss Puerto Rico's balcony around 5 in the afternoon of the first day of September.

It is being a bit breezy. At Miss PR's the wind was howling like a sound effect in a movie blizzard.

I was over at Miss PR's because she told me her computer was acting up. I thought it might be suffering the same malady as what has been maladizing mine the past day or two.

Speaking of which, my computer is behaving so much better. I had acquired, despite always practicing safe computing, several nasty infections of varying degrees of direness.

Speaking of direness, I just heard a loud thunder boom. I think we may be in for some storming in my zone of East Fort Worth. I'm prepared, the hatches are battened. The wind has let up, while wet droplets are now falling.

Texas Thunderstorms are one of my favorite things about Texas, as compared to relatively Thunderstorm-free Washington. That and extreme downpours. My zone of Texas gets about the same amount of rain, per year, as Seattle. With the delivery method being totally different. Seattle delivers its annual inches over long long periods, day after day, month after month. While my zone of Texas delivers its annual inches in a few short storms delivering, often, several inches per dose.

I remember one fall in Washington, 5 inches fell in a couple hours. That very very rarely happens up there. The result was the worst flooding I've ever seen. And the sinking of one of Washington's floating bridges, among other dire calamities, like failing dikes and massive mudslides.

In Texas you don't have the flooding problem Western Washington has, because no Pineapple Express can deliver warm rain to the mountain snowpack, causing a rapid melt, because there are no mountains with snow to melt in Texas.

In Texas a lot of the severe flooding is not really Mother Nature's fault. It's Mother Nature's children's fault, pouring too much concrete without proper drainage, resulting in deadly flash floods that need not ever have happened.

Speaking of which, I imagine the Flood Queen of Haltom City will be keeping a watchful eye on her killer creek if this wetness onslaught accelerates.

I don't have a creek to worry about. But I do need to go get my swimming suit from its drying location before the wind blows rain on it. I need it dry for my morning swim.

It Has Been A Rainy Tuesday In Fort Worth With More Water On The Way

Rain dripped from above until after noon today. I don't think we've seen the last of the wet stuff. The forecast is for more wetness for the next 5 days.

Around 3 this afternoon I needed to escape from rubbing my fingertips sore on a keyboard.

So, I hiked over to Miss Puerto Rico's balcony to enjoy the slightly cool breeze and the view of the retreating storm.

Having said that. I just walked outside for a second. Wet stuff is falling again. Though not in copious amounts.

Texas in summer, in the past 2 days, has become like a Washington winter. Except warmer. But the rain seems way too familiar. Except here, in Texas, the rain falls with extreme prejudice in a volume I never saw in Washington.

Well, there was the Thanksgiving Flood in the 1990s. I remember 5 inches of rain falling within a couple hours in a Texas-style downpour. This wreaked all sorts of havoc of the flooding sort. Not flash floods. More massive than that.

In Texas you don't have snowmelt due to rising temperatures sending massive amounts of water into the rivers, because Texas removed its mountains years ago. I think around the time Texas removed its Native Americans. Mountains and Indians went to Oklahoma. I may be misinformed about this.

I remember during the Thanksgiving Flood staying up late sandbagging the dike in downtown Mount Vernon, to save the downtown. The crest of the flood was expected to breech the sandbags. A HUGE crowd gathered to wait for the crest.

Suddenly the river dropped a couple feet. It was a major what the hell moment. Within an hour it was known that a dike further down river had failed, flooding what is known as Fir Island. The release of pressure saved downtown Mount Vernon.

Massive efforts were made to repair the dike breech following the Thanksgiving Flood. And then 2 weeks later it happened again.

I sort of miss this type of weather drama. But, actually, Texas weather drama outdoes Washington weather drama, for the most part. The snow can get a bit more wicked there, it can get colder, Pacific typhoons can be a bit breezy, a Washington HEAT WAVE is a torture Texans can not imagine.

Because few people in Washington have air conditioning. Due to not needing it, except for a couple days a decade.

It has been a good last Tuesday of June 2010. Up late the night before, up before dawn's crack, learned that the Queen of Wink is okay, and hopefully safely back in Wink. And I went swimming in the rain this morning. Does not get much better than that.

My drippy forecast below....