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

When I woke up at 8am the woman on the radio said that it was 58/14.4. Now, at 12.30, it's 84/28.9. During the summer we usually get our daily maximum temperature around 4-5pm, and if it was 84 at half past noon I'd be expecting it to get up to the mid 90s by 5pm, but today it'll be starting to get dark about that time. I'll be interested to see what time we get our maximum today. We've got a forecast of 87 today, and 88 for Thursday and Friday before another cold front comes through and drops the temperatures back down to 70/21 on Saturday.

Shower-ometer, it say - SUMMER! Oy.

Yesterday's maximum was 86/30 so no record, but there's still today and tomorrow (forecast highs of 88 for both days) to come. Apparently they hit 80/26.7 in Denver yesterday and triple digits in California. So, at 9.50am, it's already 77/25, but overcast.

Well, we tied the record for the date yesterday at 88/31.1, and today we might tie the record for the hottest November temperature recorded in Austin - 91/32.8.

And almost immediately, if the timing is right, a cold front will sweep through and drop the overnight minimum to around 52/11.1

Yep, we got up to 91F this afternoon and tied the record for November. Then the cold front came through and at 9.15 it's dropped to 72/22.2

So, 91/32.8 was our maximum yesterday... 67/19.4 today, and at 2.30am it's 47/8.3. I don't know whether I'm coming or going with this weather.

I'm afraid I don't know the temperatures but on Friday night and last night I had cause to be walking up the hill from the centre of town after various events and I had to wear a hat !

The overnight minimum here was 41/5 at Camp Mabry, 33/0.6 at the airport. Bit when I woke up but it's already up to 58/14.4 at 10.30am. Cold nights, warm days, clear skies... means only one thing - high pressure.

We're supposed to get SNOW this week!!

Highs in the 50-somethings, lows in the 30-somethings the past few days, I think Saturday night it got in the mid-20s overnight. Time to get my leaky water connection fixed, I think.

(Last winter the water connection to our house developed a leak causing the line to freeze up overnight, leaving us without water in the morning on several occasions.)

And we're supposed to get a high of 87/30.6 today

Here we go again

High temperature today - 85/29.4
High temperature tomorrow - around 72/22.2

Another cold front is supposed to come through soon after midnight and drop temps from around 70 to the mid to low 50s by dawn. I have no idea whether to put the duvet or the sheet on the bed

Strong winds have been forecast with the passage of this cold front, and the figures show what time it came through:

00:51am - W 5mph
01:51am - W 6mph
02:51am - NW 21mph, gusts to 30mph
03:51am - NW 15mph, gusts to 26mph
04:51am - NW 12mph, gusts to 25mph
05:51am - NW 13mph, gusts to 22mph
06:51am - NW 10mph, gusts to 21mph
07:51am - NW 14mph, gusts to 29mph
08:51am - NW 16mph, gusts to 33mph

There have been gusts over 40mph in areas around Texas - 43mph at Waco for instance. That's officially gale force 8 for those of you who are familiar with the shipping forecast and the Beaufort scale.

One rather worrying aspect of this weather is that most of the trees around here are only just starting to lose their leaves. I believe that one of the reasons for so many trees getting flattened in the 'hurricane' of '87 was that it happened when trees in the south of England were still in full leaf.

Out in the Oklahoma panhandle where my mom used to live they're expecting gusts of 55mph. The NOAA forecast at a glance picture for today says 'Blowing Dust'. I'm sure there's a joke in there somewhere...

> I believe that one of the reasons for so many trees getting flattened in the 'hurricane' of '87 was that it happened when trees in the south of England were still in full leaf.<

That’s quite right. Most trees hadn’t shed their leaves up to that point and was probably the main reason for most of the damage. What is commonly forgotten though, was that we had for a couple of years before that had gales and extremely high winds fairly regularly, but mostly over the winter period. They weren’t up to hurricane proportions but I don’t recall having such generally high winds after that night.

One of the remarks I recall made by a forecaster in the post-mortem afterwards was that ‘the bottom had fallen out of the barometer’. I find that remark quite interesting because at the moment most of the trees around this neck of the woods are still pretty much in full leaf. They are shedding but it’s a slower process than usual probably due to the warmest October on record and November doesn‘t seem much different. Couple that with the fact that high winds and rain are forecast for tonight and tomorrow and I suppose we can expect some damage. My weather station barometer has fallen from 2012mb the day before yesterday, to 990mb presently, and falling.

I’m not suggesting that the same thing is going to happen, but I await events with bated breath.

DK

I left here not long after my previous post, walked to the bus stop, sat down, looked across the road and saw a downed tree being attended to by some firefighters. No, it wasn't on fire they were just making sure that the muppets around here who have the barefaced cheek (more front than Southend) to call themselves drivers didn't drive into it.

So there I am, sat at my bus stop, surrounded by trees which are groaning and creaking and bending in the wind. 'That's gonna hurt if it drops on my bonce' I'm thinking. Thankfully it didn't.

It's calmed down considerably now (10.30pm) but it's turned rather chilly. Let's see... we are now at 55/12.8 heading towards 40/4.4, so definitely a duvet night tonight.

According to News 8 Austin...

Some peak wind gusts Wednesday:

52mph Lockhart
51mph Temple
47mph Georgetown
44mph Fredericksburg
43mph Fort Hood
43mph San Marcos
43mph Waco
41mph Killeen
37mph Austin Bergstrom
32mph Camp Mabry

Although NOAA says that Camp Mabry recorded gusts of up to 40mph
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/data/obhistory/KATT.html

The bad weather didn’t transpire locally.
Plenty of rain, almost continuous in fact, but not particularly windy. Pressure dropped to a low of 980 mb and at the moment stands at 991 mb and rising.
Forecast for tomorrow is more rain and winds gusting up to 50 mph.
Max temp to be around 10 C

DK

And we didn't get our snow, either

But we've got a better than 50/50 chance of a white Christmas!

Cold now.
Cold later today.
Cold tonight.
Likely more cold tomorrow.

Gotta love the Midwest!

Bit chilly here last night... for Austin anyway. The minimum was 41F/5C and it's not likely to reach 70/21.1 this afternoon, although the forecast is for it to warm, gradually, during the course of the week and it should get up to about 80/26.7 by Friday, which is when UT play the Aggies here in Austin.

It hasn't rained for weeks, and although there's some in the eight day forecast for next Sunday, it's a very slim chance.

It seems that a record was broken last night at the airport - 28F/-2.2C, one degree F lower than the previous minimum for the date. Camp Mabry only got as low as 37/2.8. It did feel pretty chilly when I woke up this morning, but it warmed up to a balmy 70/21.1. Should be a little warmer tomorrow, warmer still on Thursday and a pleasant 80/26.7 on Friday before another cold front knocks things back a few degrees.

The weather's been pretty... well, boring for the past five or six days. As in, nothing much going on. Warm, mostly sunny, some clouds, temps around or a bit higher than average, no rain. Until this morning when we had some drizzle and I opened the blinds to see a wet ground.

Changes are afoot though. Here's the description for tomorrow (Tuesday) from the News 8 Austin eight day forecast:
"82°
Mostly cloudy with some afternoon sun"

And for this coming Thursday night, after a cold front comes through on Thursday afternoon:
"33°
Hard freeze in the rural cities"

I think the shower-ometer will be reading 'Winter' on Friday morning. We'll be having maximum temps in the 50s and minimum temps in the 30s all the way through the weekend.