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

Oh dear, 99F today. Scorchio minus one. That's more than 15F above average.

Finally... rain!!!

I don't think we've had any measurable precipitation since the snow way back in February, even though during the past couple of days there have been massive storms to the west and north which have all managed to neatly miss Austin either by fizzling out just before they get here or by passing by 20 miles to the north.

There's another massive area of heavy rain directly to the west right now and heading this way. If that lot manages to fall apart before it gets here... it can't, can it? http://weareaustin.com/weather/interactiveradar

Of course it's not the first rainfall since the snow! It rained a few weeks ago when I left my umbrella at home

We've had no measurable rainfall since early March. We're desperately hoping to get some today. But mark my words. If the Houston area does get a real rain today, there are going to be wrecks all over town. When it stays dry as long as it has the roads build up a nice oily layer. When the rain hits it it gets slicker than frog snot. I did not ride my today. I can handle the slicker roads, but all those other idiots out there are clueless enough as it is.

I believe you did get some rain, at least if the radar isn't lying. Austin got just shy of 3". Very welcome indeed.

One thing I noticed from when it rained last week was a soapy scum on the road.

Nope. It rained all around us, but all we got at the house was about three minutes of light rain. My dad said a large red patch on the radar split just before it reached our little town on the bay.

I know that feeling all too well. In fact, according to the radar on Tuesday, a huge band of rain, full of reds, yellows and greens, passed over Fort Gosho.

I looked at it and I looked out of the window, and I looked at it and I looked out of the window, and I looked at it, and I looked out of the window, and I couldn't help thinking of Dune...

"Not one drop of rain on Arrakis."

These past three or four days since the rain have been a fantastic respite from the hot weather than preceded it. It's been perfect May weather - daytime temperatures in the low 80s, nighttime lows around 60, and hardly a cloud in the sky. It's like we've been through winter, spring, summer and autumn since February, but there's still that blazing Texas summer to come All three to four months of it. Still, this has been the best spring/early summer period I've experienced since I moved here. If we'd only had a little bit more rain there'd be bumper crops of just about everything later in the year.

Let the record show that Austin had its first 100°F day of 2011 on May 25th, 14° above average for the date.

Scorchio!

Not quite scorchio here yet, but we still haven't had any significant rain since March and that was only a quarter inch. That's just 1/4 inch since mid February.

Here's the most recent drought monitor image for Texas http://images.news8austin.com/media/weather/onair/0519-drought-monitor.jpg

At 2:30 this morning we finally got some heavy rain... AND HAIL!

It only lasted 10 minutes though.

Scorchio number two, and a new record for the date.

Oh, and a new drought monitor image http://images.news8austin.com/media/weather/onair/0527-tx-dm.jpg

Scorchio number three, and another record.

Someone on twitter (missoularedhead) posted this link to an article from three years ago about how we should expect worse/more extreme weather. I think they got that one right.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25268181/ns/us_news-environment/t/us-experts-forecast-more-extreme-weather/

Oh, yeah, and I read yesterday that someone (a British team) is going to attempt to ROW to the (magnetic) North Pole. Jeremy Clarkson and James May drove to it just a year or so ago and now someone's already trying to row there? ing hell!

We had a brief but very intense thunder shower yesterday afternoon that seemed to come out of nowhere. One moment it's 101° (new record) with a clear sky and the next it's raining so hard you can't see the other side of the street! It lasted about five minutes and gave us close to half an inch of rain, then moved on and left Austin feeling like a sauna.

The forecast for today is for more of the same, and temps either side of 100° for the next eight days

Similar here in the greater Houston/Galveston area, but little "Clifton by the Sea" missed the rain yet again. We've been breaking records each day for over a week now. Houston reached a very scorchio 105 °F/40.56 °C. There remains a 20% chance of rain for today and tomorrow. There is also a 40% chance of development of a tropical storm in the Caribbean that could head into the Gulf (if it hasn't already).

Not quite there yet http://www.stormpulse.com/