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

We had a little more rain overnight and I got woken up at about 5.30am by thunder. Good thing I'm not going in until 3.30 today and could doze off again until 9pm but now I've got a pinger of a headache - that always happens when I wake up for an hour or two then go back to sleep and wake up late (late means anything after 8.00am).

We might get some more rain today and there's a flash flood watch here, flash flood warning in counties to the east. This weekend is the annual Austin Reggae Festival. Tomorrow's forecast is good so they'll get at least one fine day out of the weekend. These two weekends are usually pretty quiet for us at the Drafthouse - next week it's Eeyore's Birthday http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eeyore%27s_Birthday_Party

"Eeyore's Birthday Party is attended by people from a wide variety of backgrounds and ages". No it isn't - it's attended by a bunch of ageing Austin hippies and younger neo-hippies, half of whom show up at the Drafthouse for the 10pm shows on Saturday, in what can only be described as a well-baked condition.

Drum circles

It's 3:00 in the afternoon yet it looks like it's night time.

I hear Houston got record rainfall that day.

Meanwhile...

Summer's here We got up to 93/33.9 yesterday and it could be a degree or two higher today. The average for this time of the year is 80/26.7, but we're going to be warmer than that for at least the next week, although not as warm as today, thank Bob.

I emptied 4.5 inches out of our rain gauge. I suspect there was a lot that was just blown out of the top. We had water right up to the foundations... just a bit more than we had during and after Ike! I'm not sure why it was so high. It could be that the rain was just that intense, or it could also be that they haven't completely cleared the culverts and ditches.

Oh, and the county crews came by this week to trim up dead branches from trees in the street right-of-ways. We have 4 pines along the road side that had several dead branches but they didn't bother removing the ones toward the inside of the yard, even when requested to do so. They just replied that they're just removing the dead branches on the public sides. My father pointed out that both sides of the trees are on public property. He also pointed out to the fully green and living branches they cut down.

Note, days later, all of these branches are still lying in and blocking the drainage ditches.

Tonight we have low cloud which will reduce the risk of frost which has occurred the last two nights but not to any worrying degree (spring time in Yorkshire, UK. We have clement weather for a few days and all and its dog goes mad buying bedding plants. Hence the concern with the slightest sniff of frost).

Started overcast and cool but at midday the sun punctured a few holes through the clouds to make for a pleasant afternoon.
Still no sustained rain though, we need it, given the abundance of fresh foliage.

We managed half an inch of rain today (which is an inch less than Houston got), and a tree fell on some cars in the car park at work.

Typical spring day, starts cold with low cloud and cool breeze. By mid day the sun as burnt through, the sky is alive with growing white cloud moving slowly.
By teatime the cloud is more organised and threatening and the temperature is becoming sun tan hot when the sun as its say. As normal, cloud wins the day but temperature remains pleasant

Summer's come early this year In mid May our average maximum temperatures should be around 84F, but for the past four or five days it's been above 90, and as much as 97 on Sunday... or was it Saturday? Yeah, it was Saturday. I really hope this isn't the beginning of the next four or five months because we can be as hot as this - hotter, even - all the way to the end of September.

I'll make a prediction now... It will be either in the 100s or rainy Memorial Day weekend. I'll be in your general area for our motorcycle rally in San Saba.

Our Memorial Day runs are always either blistering or flooded.

Don't remind me. Memorial Day three years ago was the first time we hit 100 milk shakes in a day (we sometimes do that many after 9pm these days ) and one of my most memorable (for the wrong reasons) days at the Drafthouse.

And all because of the rain.

The weather was not kind to us today. It rained and rained and rained. And then it rained some more. Normally of course I'd be quite happy about that, but today it brought everyone in to work. "Oh. it's raining", they thought. "Let's go and see a film instead of that thing we were going to do outdoors".

Bugger.

It's been much cooler and more pleasant since that cold front came through on Saturday (the one that brought all the rain) but there has been one drawback - it's been kinda chilly at night and in the early morning. So much so, in fact, that we broke a 109 year-old record last night when the thermometer fell to 52F, which is probably why I kept waking up throughout the night

The weather for next Monday (Memorial Day) is still looking promising - sunny and dry. If it rains on a holiday (or a weekend day, see above), we get hammered at work.

Well, I got back home from the motorcycle run yesterday. (I'm just now starting to feel (and smell) human again.)

My prediction was correct. It flooded at the campsite on Saturday and rained again on Sunday morning.

But it other than that, the temps were wonderful... until I got back to Houston and got stuck in the first traffic I had seen for the entire trip for 45 minutes added to what should have been the last 25 minutes of my trip. On the tarmac it had to be close to 100 when I was stuck at a standstill on the Gulf Freeway.

When I woke up at around 7am there was bright sunshine and not a cloud in the sky. By the time I got out of bed almost an hour later (it's my day off, I was having a well-deserved lie in) it was beginning to cloud over a little. 20 minutes later it was overcast and now, 20 minutes after that, it's black as night out there. There's some very nasty storms to the southwest of San Antonio right now, and also heading towards Victoria, but nothing in the vicinity of Austin yet. Good job too - I've got to take a walk to the supermarket soon.

Dang it, I spoke too soon. I just heard a distant rumble. A quick look at the radar shows a thunderstorm growing to the south and moving this way.

There's a decent chance of thorms here today as well. I'm in the car today so not so worried about it (but my sleeping bag is laying over the fence as it reeks a bit and needed a good airing out... a little rain wouldn't hurt).

I do need to pull the bike out and rinse off the mud from the radiator grill at some point.

There's something I don't think I've ever noticed before - a squirrel clinging (head down) to the leeward side of a tree trunk to stay out of the rain, which is now stair-rodding it down. And will you look at that - bright blue sky behind the storm.

I hear there was grapefruit-sized hail in Sam Nantonio yesterday morning

I was rudely awoken at about 1am this morning (about 30 minutes after I'd fallen asleep) by three things that happened within moments of each other:
1) Thunder, lightning and a torrential downpour
2) The recycling dumpster being loudly emptied
3) My white trash neighbour from downstairs throwing a wobbler because (I'm guessing) her cat had somehow got out and she was slamming doors screaming at the top of voice to her boyfriend about her "ing baby being out there getting knocked the up again" and then degenerating into sobs At one o'clock in the morning Some people have no damn sense of proportion... or time.

There are more storms forecast for this afternoon as a weak cold front passes through at just about the time of day when the atmosphere is at its most unstable. Hopefully they won't be accompanied by more histrionics.