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

Yep, it's that time of the year!

I've just had a look at the radar and there's a squall line coming together way off in west Texas which has already spawned a tornado watch box, the south-eastern boundary of which is only just to our west. The line itself is only just entering the north-western edge of the box so the weather service must be expecting some interesting developments this afternoon. Perhaps it'll wipe Midland-Odessa off the map

Not a fan of high school football?

Not a fan of Dubya`s support base

The only parts of Texas that aren't currently under a tornado watch or a severe thunderstorm watch are the Panhandle, the Gulf coast, the far south and the border with Louisiana. The whole of Gillespie county including Fredericksbug is getting hammered right right now - lots of reds and purples on the radar. It looks like it might slide past Austin to the north but we will be getting some rain.

We've had an inch and three quarters of rain in less than two hours

Eight tornadoes, 4.4 of rain, hail the size of baseballs. Thankfully all of that happened outside Austin city limits last night.

Meanwhile we're looking at out first 90°/32.2° day of the year tomorrow before our next chance of rain and storms comes along next week.

We didn't make it anywhere 90 yesterday (max. temperature was 84/28.9) but it sure felt like we did with the high humidity And we've got more of the same today. It's not even noon yet and we're already at 79/26.1 and 90% humidity, giving us a heat index of 88/31.1.

We're expecting rain/thunderstorms all week. No surprise we have a flood warning in effect.

There have been storms and rain in west TX all day and they've finally formed themselves into a powerful-looking squall line which is headed this way and should be here within the next few hours I'd estimate.

Well, it's finally here, but in the meantime it's somewhat fizzled out from a line of intense storms to some moderately heavy rain

After a week of hot, humid days (we managed 90/32.2 on Monday) a cold front came through in the early hours, dropped the temperature from 77/25 to 69/20.6 between 1am and 2pm, brought almost 1.5" of rain, and woke me up with loud and incessant thunder For the next few days we're going to be getting high temps in the low 80s (27 - 28) instead of around 90, and night-time temps in the upper 50s (mid teens) instead of the low 70s (lower 20s).

Front came through here yesterday afternoon and dropped temps 10 to 15 degrees. Rained pretty hard at the office, and knocked the power out at home because I had to reset my alarm clock before I went to bed. Got down into the low 50s last night, and we're forecast highs in the mid 70s until Sunday. Turned the AC back off and opened the windows

I'd love to open my patio door but a) the landscapers are here with their strimmers and mowers and leaf blowers and b) the apartment complex behind me is getting new cladding and all I can hear (above the noise of the gardeners) is hammering and sawing and stuff being tossed into skips.

I've been hit by "scattered" thunderstorms the last two days. Monday there was a 30% chance of them and yesterday only a 20% chance. Both days small but heavy showers hit me right as I was leaving work and I was riding the bike.

Today the front is moving through here but they're only calling for another 30% chance of rain.

I rode my motorcycle again.

I got some great fowl weather gear as a crimbo pressie so at least I'm getting to try it out.

Fowl weather... that'll be when it rains ducks and chickens then

Yea... Foul weather gear would probably be more useful on the bike.

Sunny skies and a beautiful 71F/22C with a slight breeze. Rest of the week is supposed to be high 70's, low 80's.

You can probably tell from the lack of postings here that the weather hasn't been doing a whole lot for the last five or six days. It's been pretty mild for the time of year - temps just scraping into the low 80s (mid to upper 20s), some sun, some clouds, no precipitation. Until today. It's very overcast and we've had a few light showers this afternoon. More rain and a few storms are forecast for the next two or three days before it warms up to the seasonal norm (mid to upper 80s) by the weekend.

The weather sure made up for its inactivity with a huge storm... yes, in the middle of the night again It came through between 2.30 and 3.00am and this time it wasn't the thunder that woke me up, it was the intensity of the rain. We got almost half an inch in less than 30 minutes, but some areas to our north got much more and are dealing with the flooding this morning. There was thunder too, oh yes. The weather forecasters are reporting 5,000 lightning strikes associated with this storm, one of which landed pretty damn close to Fort Gosho.