Well, technically, within seconds of my shutting the computer off last night, the first tornado warning was sounded for far southwest Harris County. I got up almost two hours ago to do some last-minute “should-have-been-done-yesterday” stuff, and took this snapshot of the 12 hour rainfall then:
Areas just off the map to the west and south had 6-8″ overnight, but within minutes, a squall line arrived, and it started here. Unfortunately, when I started this post about 7:40 this morning, I was concentrating on the southwest, and clipped this picture too small.
Clearing... and one of the two working red lights we found.
Not particularly impressive, but then I was kind of busy driving. I literally had to dodge two downed trees and drive through several places with curb-high water. The pictures I managed to take were after the squall line passed through, and I could, you know, see to drive. But here’s the reality… look at the rainfall totals around BW8 and I-10 East (my neck of the woods), compared to two hours ago… and bear in mind that it really happened in thirty minutes.
Fortunately, the bayous are handling it for now.
Update: What came through here, and why the rainfall in a hurricane is always a crapshoot:
Notice the big gap? It will move....
They’re talking about up to 40″ of rain in isolated areas, because no one knows where these gaps will be, nor the squall lines, nor where the storm is going to go after the next two days. For comparison, Houston normally averages 50 inches in a year.
Storm totals so far, from NOAA:
So far, not all it's cracked up to be, but not a yawner either. Still hurricane force winds, and it's stalling.
