stormchaser06's Blog

We are being set up for another horrific scenario this Hurricane Season already.

Sounds like quite the claim, doesn't it? Well, it may have some truth to it. I came to this sudden and abrupt realization earlier this morning. I'm gonna use a four-letter word to Houstonians now. Remember Rita? (there's that ugly word!) Remember how everyone tried to leave all at once and jammed the freeways and there was no gas to be found after the storm passed? Remember how after that episode of ill-preparation, a plan was put in place to surge supplies, including gasoline, into the area along evacuation routes? Sounded like it would work at the time didn't it?

Here's what I'm getting at with all this. Since that time two and a half years ago, the price of gas has gone significantly up. (Duh). Look at this chart:

We can surge all the gas we want to into evacuation zones, but what good will it be if people cannot afford to put it in their tanks in order to evacuate to safety? Chances are that you would need more than one fill-up to get to safety, more cars on the road, more idling, more gas used. Even if the New Evacuation Zone plan works, people will still not be able to drive 70 mph up to safety.

We will end up with people unable to get out of harm's way. There will be desperate calls for help during the storm from people who would have otherwise left. The government cannot foot the bill to evacuate all those in harm's way. And I don't believe that 2-1-1 helps with this either. Not everyone can rely on 2-1-1 to get them out.

The idea behind this blog is not to be the alarmist weatherman or anything of that sort. I'm just wondering if this thought has occurred to anyone else. Plus this is also IF we are threatened by a storm this year.

So my question to you is, how do we fix this problem?

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NOAA's P-3 Hurricane Hunter Aircraft will be visiting Galveston Scholes Field on Tuesday, April 15th. The plane will be open for the public and media to tour from 3-5 pm. I will be there, along with "RadarDude." If you can, come on out and check out the aircraft! This is all part of a "Gulf Coast Hurricane Awareness Tour" put on by the National Hurricane Center. By the way, this is FREE!

Here is a link with more information from the National Weather Service:

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/hgx/tropical/p3tour08.htma>

Check out Roswell's weatherman! (This is really what was printed on the back of the Roswell Daily Record, the local newspaper.)

And.... who needs a NWS Forecast Office when your town has its own "Weather Balloon Tracking Center" inside of the downtown cafe?? (It was closed down though- what a bummer!)

A few months ago, I wrote a blog asking why there were no tornado sirens around the Houston area. Read that blog here. 

I actually was looking at the issue again now that we are moving into prime severe weather season. While I was looking, I stumbled upon some information about Houston and Tornado Sirens. Houston did have tornado sirens at one point. Apparently, Houston used to have "Thunderbolt" outdoor warning sirens made by Federal Signal. ("Thunderbolts" included Model 1000, 1000T, and 1003's. A thunderbolt is pictured at right).

Anyhow, I found my answer on wikipedia. (of course!) This is what the article said:

"Houston, TX Began removing many thunderbolts in the mid. 1990's due to sound pollution ordinance. None were operational by 2004. No sirens have been put back in their place."

Are you kidding me?!

This new information prompted me to go in search of Houston's City Ordinances and find out what this "sound pollution ordinance" actually said. I found this in Chapter 30 Section 30-6:

"Maximum permissible sound levels.

(a)   In addition to the violations established by the preceding sections of this chapter, no person shall conduct, permit, or allow any activity or sound source to produce a sound discernible at any location beyond the property lines of the property on which the sound is being generated that when measured as provided in section 30-7 of this Code exceeds the applicable dB(A) level listed below for the property on which the sound is received:

(1)   Residential property:   

a.   65 dB(A) during daytime hours.

b.   58 dB(A) during nighttime hours.

(2)   Nonresidential property:  68 dB(A) at all times.  

Any sound that exceeds the dB(A) levels set forth in this section under the conditions and measurement criteria set forth in this chapter is a violation of this chapter. Evidence that an activity or sound source produces a sound that exceeds the dB(A) levels specified in this section shall be prima facie evidence of a sound nuisance that unreasonably disturbs, injures, or endangers the comfort, repose, health, peace, or safety of others in violation of this chapter.

(b)   Regardless of the measurable dB(A) level established above and measured as provided in section 30-7, below, the generator of any sound of such a nature as to cause persons occupying or using any property other than the property upon which the sound is being generated to be aware of sympathetic vibrations or resonance caused by the sound shall also be prima facie evidence of a sound that unreasonably disturbs, injures, or endangers the comfort, repose, health, peace, or safety of others in violation of this chapter. (Ord. No. 01-945, § 2, 10-17-01)"

unreasonably disturbs, injures, or endagers the comfort, repose, health, peace, or safety of others?

NOT having the warning sirens endagers the safety of others I think! It's a CIVIL DEFENSE warning system, and civil defense can also be read as PUBLIC SAFETY, right? Check out this statement in Section 30-9:

"Defenses.

The following defenses shall apply to any offense established in this chapter: (a)   The emission of any sound was for the purpose of alerting persons to the existence of an emergency, danger, or attempted crime

(Ord. No. 01-945, § 2, 10-17-01)"

I don't know about you, but I consider a tornado or (heaven forbid) an attack on the Port or a refinery explosion to all be emergencies and dangers! If it is ok for a sound greater than 68 dB(A) to be heard in order to alert persons to the existence of an emergency, then why were the sirens removed?

I come from a family of nerds. We all went outside tonight to see if we could see the International Space Station pass over. It had been kind of cloudy, but we decided to give it a shot anyway. Wouldn't you know that there was a big break in the clouds over us right at the time the ISS was scheduled to pass over?

We saw it, and something else too. There were two "things" orbitting the earth (ISS included) that we saw. Both were equally bright and moving at the same speed and in the same direction. What was the second object in the sky with the ISS?

I took a video as they were passing over us. You may or may not be able to see anything, sorry! And again I'm warning you, I come from a family of nerds. Enjoy listening to the bunch of us get all excited about it and start spouting off different theories of what the second object may be.

Today is the day everyone! We're under a "Moderate Risk" for seeing some severe weather around here. Now we live in the Greater Houston Area, so that should mean that we know what to do when things like this happen. I believe we are all rather intelligent, so let's all make sure we use our heads and stay safe today. Another part of that is staying tuned to Fox26 and myfoxhouston.com. After all, FoxRad Stormseeker is the only radar of its kind in Texas!

Share your weather stories! What happend where you were today? 

I'm sure we'll all have something to talk about!

Thursday March 6th meant a trip up to Fort Worth for my mum and I. It also meant dealing with the possibilty of some winter weather. By the time we got there, there was a full-blown winter storm moving in! Check out the video and pictures below!

You'll need to block out some time to watch this. It's about 25 minutes long!

The weather on Saturday was thankfully not as bad as it could easily have been. All the ingredients were present and the stage was set correctly, however there wasn't quite enough of one key ingredient: The Sun. The fact that the sun did not come out and it stayed cloudy all day Saturday actually helped keep the storms from becoming worse than they were. Had the sun come out, the atmosphere would have been more energized and there would have been more for the storms to work with.

However, they were still bad enough for this driver in Cleveland:

This was at a gas station on Texas 321, just north of Cleveland High School. The driver jumped the curb and ended up in a drainage ditch full of water. The car had been left there, and so I don't know if anyone was hurt or not. Hopefully not.

I also came upon a pickup truck that had spun out on 321 and ended up in a flooded yard with water halfway up the doors, almost over the hood. I didn't get a picture, and there were people there (I'm assuming firends or family) with another truck and a tow rope pulling it out. Like I say in the video, PLEASE be careful when driving at night, especially during inclement weather!

Be sure to visit this blog as well.

Here is the video to go with the picture above, and a couple of clips of what storm chasing can be like sometimes with "big fat rain" (thanks Forrest Gump!) hitting the windshield and lots of chatter on the radio back and forth with the National Weather Service. I was on my way to look for damage from an unconfirmed tornado in Dayton and report back to the NWS. I did not find any damage. This isn't really that exciting, just rain, but I'm giving it to you anyway.

Every time there is bad weather with a risk for flooding in the area, you hear meteorologists tell you to be especially cautious while driving at night. Take a look at this picture. See anything wrong?

It is kind of hard hard to see even with my brights on, but this road is FLOODED. See the reflection of the road signs on the water's surface? (AND the "High Water" warning sign?) I took this Saturday night at the intersection of Texas 321 and County Road 2267 in rural Liberty County. This is looking down County Road 2267.

This is just an illustration of how hard it can be to recognize flood waters at night. DO NOT try to drive through something like this!! Now if for some reason you do get caught in a flood and your car stalls, GET OUT OF YOUR VEHICLE IMMEDIATELY-- IT'S NOT WORTH IT. Climb on top of your car and call for help. If the water suddenly rises or begins to move, you do not want to be trapped inside.

A key thing to remember is the saying that was adopted by the National Weather Service: "TURN AROUND, DON'T DROWN." That is exactly what I did here. Also that night, I came into Dayton along 321 when all of a sudden the road went down under a bridge. I saw that there was water at the bottom and so what did I do? I hit the brakes. I was not going through that water until I could see that is was not as deep as I thought it was, and it was not moving. Still, I proceeded with caution.

If you are not sure about how deep water over the road is or whether or not your vehicle can make it through, Don't drive through it. STOP. If people behind you want to honk and get upset, LET THEM. It is not worth you risking your life for the sake of their convenience.

Flooding is the number 1 killer related to thunderstorms. Not tornadoes, not lightning, FLOODING.

Alright. The latest Severe Weather Outlook for Saturday has just been released from the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma. We're under the gun everyone. Let me show you and explain:

This is the risk of Severe Thunderstorms in general. There are four total levels: T-storm (general thunderstorms), Slight Risk for severe t-storms, Moderate Risk for severe t-storms, and High Risk for severe t-storms. High Risk is of course the greatest chance for severe weather.

This is the chance of damaging winds or wind gusts of about 58 MPH or greater within 25 miles of any point.. We have a fairly decent chance of seeing some significant wind events in our area Saturday.

This here is the chance of seeing hail that is 3/4" or larger within 25 miles of any point. 3/4" inch hail is roughly the size of a penny. The blue hatched area represents where there is a 10% or greater chance of seeing hail that is 2" or larger in diameter. That would be hail larger than a golf ball but smaller than a raquetball. As you can see, that threat is mainly to the southwest of us, but by all means it is still possible here.

This is an important one. This is the probability of tornados on Saturday. This shows the chance of a tornado occuring within 25 miles of any point. The blue hatched area shows where there is a 10% or greater chance of an EF2 through EF5 tornado occuring within 25 miles of a point.

It has been a long time since we have had a risk as great as this for severe weather around here. We're told every single time anything happens to take cover and stay away from windows and all that great stuff, but really, do it Saturday. When instructions are given with a warning or watch, follow them Saturday. Remember a watch means that the conditions for the type of watch are possible in the area, and a warning means that the event is imminent or already happening. 

Just stay home Saturday, and PLEASE monitor the weather situation closely. Stay tuned to Our Gulf Coast Weather Authority, (that's Fox 26 of course), they will be running crawl messages and even cutting into programming throughout the day as conditions warrant.

Most importnantly, STAY SAFE EVERYONE!

Just to give you a visual for my description in this blog.

Image taken from www.globexplorer.com 

Look! This is my old middle school in Madisonville, Kentucky. THAT is an F4 tornado behind it. Let me clarify that this is NOT from the recent tornado outbreak that sent a tornado just south of Madisonville. This is from another outbreak that happend on November 15, 2005.
I had never seen this picture before tonight. I was just looking for more information about the recent tornado outbreak when I came across this picture. My old house is about a quarter mile to the right of the tornado, just behind those trees a little ways. We moved out of that house in December 2001.

Leonard Costanzo took this picture. I did not.

This really galls me. Check this out:

I was reviewing some of the storm reports from yesterday's tornado outbreak when the thought occured to me, "Check the MyFoxMemphis blogs for any tornado stories." I did so, and you won't believe what I found. There are blogs telling of how there were people actually calling and e-mailing the Fox Station in Memphis and getting all upset that American Idol was not on. Nevermind that people in that very city were DYING and Fox 13 was in extended severe weather coverage trying to keep the city abreast of the situation and relay updates and new warnings as fast as possible. COME ON!

That is truly pathetic. I was absolutely floored when I saw that. Those people ought to be ashamed of themselves. How SELFISH!

Read for yourself if you don't believe me:

 http://community.myfoxmemphis.com/blogs/category/W
EATHER

Here is a photo that viewer Galen Mitchell in Memphis sent to Fox 13 of one of the tornados:

I really didn't know that there was such a thing. But it's today! (Feb 5th). So to all you weathermen, women, or just general weather enthusiasts out there,

Happy Weathermans' Day!