h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Is there any snow in the forecast between now and then?

Believe it or not, it's still raining here, albeit much more lightly than before. The cumulative total now is 2.32". I don't think we'll be getting much more - the main area of rain is heading east and right now is covering East Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

There's the possibility of 'flurries' on Boxing Day. The temperature needs to drop a bit before then if it is to stick. Whilst it's cold out there, it is still consistently just above freezing.

By the time I left for work yesterday at about 12.30, the sky had almost entirely cleared and the sun was shining brightly, but it was still quite cold and a stiff breeze made it feel pretty raw, even in the sun. We made 55F/12.8 yesterday.

Right now it's a chilly 38/3.3 and should get into the low 60s/upper teens this afternoon before dipping back down to the mid 30s tonight. Not a cloud in the sky this morning - we must be under a high pressure system.

Do you want the good news first, or the other good news? Oh, okay.

The good news is that it's going to be pleasantly warm today - around 75/23.9. The other good news is that we're likely to get heavy rain and thunderstorms later today

And I say that on the evidence of the radar, not the weather forecasters

Here it is dull, windy and damp. It looks mild but I've got the heating on. There's that weird light outside which means a storm nay be brewing.

I love that light

After having woken up to heavily over cast skies and a brief (15 seconds) shower, the sun has just come out! At this time of the day it's still quite low on the horizon.

We're getting the front edge of that cold front right now here in the Houston/Galveston area.

I woke up this morning to hear on the weather forecast 80%-100% chances of rain for today and tonight with wind advisories and thunderstorm warnings...

Ok, not unexpected. But then they say there will also be a chance of TORNADOES?!

Tornadoes.... in late December? WTF?


Thunderstorms in late December around here are odd but tornadoes?

We're supposed to have rain today & tomorrow but stay in the high 50's for temp. Spring is *really* early this year.

Yep - tornadoes! There was at least one in Milam county, to the north east of Austin, and I read that Dubya and Laura were hauled off to a tornado shelter on their Crawford ranch. We've been under a tornado watch most of the day - still are until 2am.

We had the most incredible torrential, tropical downpour this afternoon. Almost half an inch of rain fell in about 15-20 minutes. There was another, less torrential but longer downpour around 6pm and we've had 1.13" of rain in total. It's still raining a bit. Very humid.

The rain's moved off to the east and we ended up with 1.15" for the day (a new record for Dec 29th) and 1.64" in total after it stopped raining in the small hours this morning. Looks like the next few days are going to be dry, and mild during the day but chilly at night.

And now your rain's heading my way. Actually I expected it before now, but I'll probably be walking to the parking lot in the rain in about three hours. The weather-casters keep teasing us and saying this will all turn to flurries by Monday afternoon. Yeah, I've heard that one before (like this time last week. Didn't need to wear jackets over Christmas at all).

Over the holiday I was visiting with my friends who were in town from Athens. Mr B and I are planning a trip there next summer, and we were discussing when would be the best time to go. I think we settled on sometime in August, because that's when Mr B will have saved up enough vacation time to go. My friend warned us that it was terribly hot there in August, so to be prepared for some serious heat. I asked him if "hot" meant 85 - 90 or 125 - 130? He said it gets up to about 90, but there's not much humidity.

90 and no humidity??? That's not hot, that's paradise!

We dream of days that are 90 and not humid along about July/August when it's breaking 100 and the humidity is at 80%.

After several days of beautiful weather, highs in the mid 60's, this morning was a frosty cold 18F.

Pretty damn chilly here this morning too. When I walked through the complex on my way to the bus stop at about 8.40am there was frost on all the roofs that were in shadow and hadn't yet felt the warmth of the sun on them. According to the record though, Camp Mabry didn't go below 36/2.2 last night, and it hasn't gotten any higher than 55/12.8 today.

Yet more rain is forecast for tomorrow - a 70% chance during the day and 100% for the evening. There's optimism for you

2006 is officially the warmest year at Camp Mabry - the average temperature for last year was 71.6F/22C. The previous warmest year was 71.2 degrees set in 1999, followed by 70.8 degrees first set in 1933 and tied in 1988. Records have been kept at Camp Mabry since 1854.

Well, they were right about the rain this time! There's only one way to describe the weather out there tonight - I wouldn't send a dog out in it. It's cold and it's tippling and there's even heavier headed this way soon. Like, within the next 15 minutes.

I sent my dogs out in it last night.

They probably liked it... they're labrador retrievers.

Of course it wasn't raining when I sent them out. I did think about getting out of bed and seeing if they wanted back in but then I rolled over and went back to sleep.

You should probably check your yard and see if they dug themselves a pond.

It's warmer here today. It only dropped 7 degrees (from 50 to 43) between 8pm last night and 7am this morning. We officially have a 20% chance of rain today, but it was sprinkling on the way in to work, so who knows?

I went to sleep with the soft sound of rain outside my window last night We got a total of 1.07" in about eight hours, which is a perfect rate for getting plenty of water into the ground and (eventually) the aquifer without any flooding, and we sure need it.

It's going to be pretty warm these next few days, even into the mid 70s (low 20s) on Friday before another cold front drops the mercury by about 20F on Saturday.

Out by where Mr. Emee used to farm they had 30 inches of snow plus lots of winds = 15ft high drifts. They're air lifting hay in for the livestock.

There's a saying about Texas weather - if you don't like it, stick around for a day or two cos it'll change. Now, while that might not be the case from June until September when it's hotter than the surface of the sun for four straight months, it is at this time of the year. Yesterday was a very pleasant 81/27.2 at Camp Mabry. Today, however, it was 50/10 at 7am and that's probably the last we'll see of any double figures Celsius until tomorrow when it should warm up a bit.

I've heard that saying, or something similar, about nearly everywhere I've visited. In St Louis it goes - if you don't like the weather wait a couple of hours and it will change. Generally, this holds pretty true.

Cold today. It will still be cold in a couple of hours. But there have been days when I've run the heater and the air conditioner in the same day (in the car - I've never done this in the house, but I wouldn't rule it out).