Severe Weather Today

Tornado watch just got issued for western / northwestern OK.  Environment is pretty rich; any discrete storms you see will be dumping hail and trying to rotate.  Stay safe and keep an eye on radar!  If you know anyone in Kansas, tell them to stay alert - the worst of it is going to be up there.

Year-End Summary

I keep having plans to post all kinds of pictures and stuff and never having the time or energy to do it.  So here's a rundown to remind myself of what I should write about in the nebulous future.

This year:

• My foot got a Dx (tarsal tunnel syndrome), and with some $$$ and medical care that has gotten better enough that I'm spending more time walking/standing and the old pain on the bottoms of both feet came back,
• The doc says that pain is tendinitis, or at least I think he said that, and we're trying various things to fix that too.  The meds make me loopy at night, but at least it's at night.
• My jewelry business has seen a downturn - every convention and show is different, and they change stuff all the time, and there are a multitude of factors that are beyond my control.
• I'm making some money for groceries by doing lawn and yard work for friends.
• I've picked up a part-time job doing wordpress and such for two ladies who want someone to handle their business website while they do all the businessy things.  The hours are completely unpredictable, but this job is the first I can really put on a resume since college.  And it's work from home.  So, yay.
• I dug a new flower bed and threw every wildflower seed I had collected over the past two years into it.  And planted some of the Dotter irises there too.
• I learned that Granddad's cherry tomatoes are indeterminate and will grow and produce best when planted in the ground and allowed to vine wherever they wish, instead of keeping them in pots (pots works great for determinate Early Girls down in CenTex) or caging them up.
• Other stuff that I need to think about before I put any of it here.

The ice storm is doing its thing.  Our power is still on but it flickers a lot and has blipped once.  We're trying to feed the birds - several websites suggested that peanuts, peanut butter, rolled oats, dried fruit, and raw apples would be appreciated.  Not sure if the birds like that yet, as it got dark too soon after we put it out, but we didn't have any seed.  We'll see if someone eats it tomorrow.  The birds have a water source here, at least, as the pond pump is still on and they can drink from the waterfall or the top of the filter.

Saw someone sledding, country style:

Still Afloat

The weather adventures have been accumulating.  About a week ago, I was at a convention in Houston - could not have happened at a better time, as there is now flooding, and yet another part of a system has parked itself over the middle of town.

While I was there with a friend, I woke up at 7:15 to find my phone saying, "Tornado warning in your area!  Take shelter now!  This warning expires at 6:45."  The tors are really small down here, with a few exceptions.  This one apparently passed about 4 miles away from our hotel, a short-lived F1.  I must commend the hotel staff for not waking up every guest just because we were in a warning polygon for a small tor.  I really needed that extra hour of sleep.

Also at the con, I noted a tor warning over my neighborhood at home.  I called to verify my housemates were safe. Luckily it missed our neighborhood by a good 10-15 miles, and was likewise small.  I have seen pics of the flooding in Austin, but haven't seen any of it with my own eyes yet.  Our house is on a hill, so no worries there.

Then we drove home from the con through the next line of storms - my friend described it as "harrowing," but then she had grown up in the Great White North.  I found the drive quite pleasant, as there was almost no hail, and we had the road mostly to ourselves - in a driving downpour, the biggest hazards are differences in speed between you and other vehicles. The wind wasn't even all that bad - didn't really feel like I was fighting it much.  Visibility did get so crappy that I elected to pull over for about 10 minutes, though.  Nice to hear the thunder.

Upon making it to a travel stop midway, I stopped to talk to a motorcyclist, who told me that my main route into Austin was closed.  It's not like northwestern Oklahoma down here, where the road network has very few coverage gaps.  There are pretty much two ways into Austin from the east, and that's it.  We took the only other detour available to us, and by the time we made it mostly home, the closures on that one due to accidents / flooding had cleared.

Found out later that a small dam in a state park pond had failed, causing the highway on our original route to flood.

Two nights ago, another line went through.  I was standing on the front porch when a turquoise flash lit up the entire sky - followed by a loud, low note like a tuba, then a crack - a transformer had blown.  A few minutes later, another one went.  Really cool sound.

Dad's fine; another one passing NW of Fairview

Circulation passing NW of Fairview, moving NE.  One spun up by Elk City about half an hour, 45 minutes ago, but disorganized enough that it passed right over my dad.

More severe weather on the way for western OK today

So far there's a line of stuff still in the TX panhandle, though not for much longer - moving pretty quick, will be in OK shortly.  The line had an inflow notch and some circulation just north of I-40, moving northeast, but is no longer tornado warned. Looks like two unconfirmed tornado reports from further WSW into the TX panhandle.

There are some discrete cells further south near Childress - as in, separate storms, some of which have or are attaining supercell shape - the pointy, more intense southwest end and the fan-shaped, more diffuse northeast end.  Tornadoes form at the southwest end.  A few of these are currently severe-warned with hail cores.  Discrete supercells are typically the source of the more dangerous tornadoes.  In the past 15 minutes, more discrete cells have popped up behind the line, further north around I-40.

Be safe.

Update: Friday just got upgraded to Moderate Risk too

See previous post.  Friday and Saturday are both likely to be more severe than Wednesday was.

Severe weather possible today, tomorrow, and Saturday especially

Today is middling, tomorrow a little worse, and the NWS has issued a Moderate Risk convective outlook for Saturday over a good chunk of Oklahoma:

The only category higher than moderate is 'high'.  This is two days out, and it could change (get better, worse, and/or the areas affected could shift).  Keep an eye on radar and on the news / NWS radio.