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

Apparently we've got some 'active' weather headed our way - and it's in the middle of the night, again

"It's a significant weather day in the Lone Star State, with our second "moderate risk" for severe weather this year according to the Storm Prediction Center. A slight to moderate risk of severe weather means the potential for supercell storms to create 1 to 3" diameter hail (a 45% chance), isolated tornadoes (15% chance) and damaging winds (15% chance) continues through daybreak Saturday."

Well isn't that just grand.

It's raining here and we still have 100% chance of rain/snow for tonight. Risk for tornado & severe thunderstorm so we'll see how things pan out for the big visit the in-laws plan.

The in-laws have a snow advisory. They expect 1-3 inches by tomorrow morning.

The wife kept saying she expected at least six inches... I never quite understood what she was going on about since we don't ever get that much snow in Austin

Anyways. Around 8.30 this evening the wind got up... and up and up and up! It must have blown a couple of power lines together because we lost power at work for about a minute until it came back on. There was talk of a tornado watch, then a tornado warning. The Rolling Roadshow guys came back a while later - they'd been out doing a show at Fredericsburg, off to the west of Ausint some disatnace. Apparently the wind got up there too, and they use an inflatable projection screen that's... well, just imagine the bottom of a bouncy castle turned on its edge, but somewhat bigger. And there was rotation in the clouds above

Needless to say they deflated the screen toot sweet and hightailed it back to Austin.

Cooling down for autumn
Duck-down doona is out for the next few months for night temps below 18C
Daytime still forecast for 28+ for a while yet...

I only caught snippets of the news last night, but it looked like Dallas got hit pretty hard.

Yeah, they did http://cbs11tv.com/topstories/local_story_103202436.html

That picture of the baseball-sized hailstone is pretty scary/impressive.

Saw some of the tornado footage & hail damage footage on the news. Had snow out here in Alva, Oklahoma. My grandparents report 7-10 inches in SW Kansas. A little further west they had 13+. It's spring. Really. Any time now.

London was warmer than Texas on Sunday... by 1°F. Highest recorded temperature at Heathrow Airport - 75. Highest at Camp Mabry - 74. We were 2° warmer overnight though - 42 and 44. By Wednesday things will certainly be back on an even keel as we get into the low 80s/upper 20s.

Sorry, that was London City Airport. Heathrow got up to a dizzying 77

Before I left for work this morning I heard there was a 30% chance of rain, so I took my brolly. Turned out I didn't need it. It started raining about an hour after I got to work and it rained non-stop until about an hour before I came home. We got 0.8" of rain, and it was that steady rain that doesn't flood anything but soaks nicely into the aquifer.

Those are the best of rains. Only bad thing is they make me want to curl up at home with a book instead of doing anything at w*rk.

A perfect spring day this morning - clear blue sunny skies with not even a mention of a cloud. Currently 61/16.1 on the way up to about 80/26.7.

I hear a lot of people say that they hate working on warm sunny days like this, but days like this make me happy at work. I'm happy doing anything when the sun's shining. I'm happy when the sun's shining.

I work in a veritable cave... can't tell if it's rain or shine until I leave.

There aren't any windows where I work either - have to step out of the back door to see outside. But I used to have a workshop with a west-facing window that looked out over a municipal park, and on a sunny day it was quite gorgeous to gaze out of the window while working.

We've got a forecast of severe weather for this evening and through the night. Strong thunderstorms with a possibility of large hail, damaging winds and heavy downpours.

The roughest stuff from that storm should pass to the North of us this evening leaving us with high winds and heavy rain and a chance of small hail in Houston. On Galveston Bay we will probably only have wind and rain. Here's the Marine Forecast:

SMALL CRAFT SHOULD EXERCISE CAUTION LATER THIS MORNING AND THIS AFTERNOON

TODAY
SOUTHEAST WINDS INCREASING TO 15 TO 20 KNOTS. BAY WATERS
CHOPPY. A SLIGHT CHANCE OF SHOWERS.

TONIGHT
SOUTH WINDS INCREASING TO 20 TO 25 KNOTS. BAY WATERS
ROUGH. A CHANCE OF SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS.

WEDNESDAY
SOUTH WINDS 15 TO 20 KNOTS BECOMING SOUTHWEST NEAR 10
KNOTS IN THE AFTERNOON. BAY WATERS CHOPPY DECREASING TO SLIGHTLY
CHOPPY IN THE AFTERNOON. SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS LIKELY IN THE
MORNING.

I just found out there's also going to be a flash flood watch in our area from 6pm to 6am.

We're under a severe thunderstorm warning and there's at least 1 tornado on the ground 20 miles to the west.

Well.... What happened????